Spare of A Girl's Thoughts

2008-10-24T21:30:00.002+07:00

work & placement

Things have became significantly different for me since yesterday.

I just received the news about my job placement yesterday. It was unexpected. The result made me keep questioning myself, and God, why? I wasn't that sad but yet the result did not put me in a position where I could know the reason behind this.

Now I'm totally confused. Not that I'm not thankful for what I've been assigned for, but the result is a bit unexpected. It's far than I'd ever thought or imagined!

But I'm slowly digesting it. Just like other things I could not understand before which I do now, I wish I could also make peace with this decision sooner or later.

And I want to give it a good shake. And I'll show them I will.

2008-10-19T19:57:00.003+07:00

dream #1

I dream of having my very own apartment. I would decorate the interior by myself, buying my very own furnitures and paint the wall with color I prefer. I also would love to beautify it with a lot of pieces of my precious finds from places I've been, put a lot of frames with memorable pictures, build as high as possible bookshelf to put every book I'd collected for years and complete the room with the smell of vanilla candle...

Unlike my other friends, I'm quite obsessed with kitchen rather than bedroom. I wish I had a kitchen with an island in the middle of it, with the wine bottle hanger on the top so I could enjoy drinking with friends while sitting there with our hands over the fresh-from-the-oven short bread or sitting reading my reports while waiting for my cupcakes to get done. My kitchen will have a small shelf dedicated for my favorite recipe books and hand written recipe from my mom. I'd also love to keep some crystal wine glasses ,or beer 's would also be nice too!

For my own bedroom I want to have it simple, a double bed size would be perfect covered with a warm blanket with a contrast color. I would never ever put a TV in my bedroom. Not a chance I'll let TV or computer or electronic games to be around my room. I'm an adult for goodness sake, no longer a student! I also want my walk-in-robe that 's just enough size for easy access. I also want some spaces dedicated for my shoes and bags, too!

It would be nice to have it happened someday and I'm working on it :)

2008-10-17T21:00:00.002+07:00

as simple as an appreciation

I was in front if my laptop, when my dad was flicking the TV channels and stopped at this one Chinese drama. I did not get the whole story, but I found an part of the drama a bit interesting.

So there was this guy who happened to visit his ex-wife's house and found out that she has already re-married to another guy. He almost excused himself from that awkward situation, but apparently his ex-wife hubby was very courteous himself *funnily, he even called this guy, "Senior"!*, he asked him to stay for a family dinner. So the guy reluctantly stayed for the dinner.

When the food was finally served on the dinner table, his es-wife's new hubby was really eager and delightedly said to this guy, "Please try my wife's chicken noodle. It's the best in Beijing! It's really classic, you won't find anything like this elsewhere!" He even helped him to get the meat into his bowl, just typical Asian tradition, as a show of respect towards their guests. This new hubby was really enjoying the food, as he non-stop-ly praising his wife's own made noodle and obviously enjoyed every sip of it.

But his ex-wife said nothing, and turned to his ex-hubby and simply said, "Still the same noodle" with a clear awkward emotion on her face. While eating his noodle, this guy replied, "Yes, and it is delicious".

After the dinner is finished, this guy met a friend of him and talked to him about his ex-wife and her new husband. "She's obviously happier", he mentioned.

I didn't watch the whole story, but I got the impression that when this guy was married to his ex-wife, it was clear that he was also used to of the same noodle. But the difference is, his ex-wife's new hubby appreciates the food she made for him, while he did not. He might used to complain about her noodle and his lack of appreciation made his ex-wife got enough of him. And he realized, he'd done something wrong, may be without him even realized it before; it did not make his wife happy.

It is true that for a woman, at least for me, an appreciation is more than anything we ever wanted. For a woman to prepare or to cook or to make some efforts for someone, at least for me, is a language of showing love. There is a word of affection behind it and maybe comes with a little bit of sacrifice added.

Appreciation is what I believe, one out of few factors that forms a foundation in a relationship. That is at least for me.

2008-10-13T21:14:00.002+07:00

my very own indulgence

I got a chance to get home early today, and because my parents are coming home tonight so I spared sometimes for a little bit of cleaning, wash dishing and preparing some fruits.

Tonight the weather is unforgivably hot. At least, we have 28-29 degrees or more I believe. May be I haven't done a lot of work, but this hot airy within the house did really wear me out. And since I'm all by myself, I also prepared my very own instant noodle :p A bowl of instant noodle after a good shower and knowing you have everything to do had been done, is more than simply delicious! I had it while blog-walking in front of my laptop, and I realized, it's simply indulging!

I haven't had such a life for quite a while. Since I got back home and lives with my parents, I no longer have a chance to everything on my liking anymore. There are so many things to adapt and compromise, I even missed my long hour internet session in my very own room! Work itself has already taken my one third of 24 hours, spending time in front of computer or reading novels for 3 hours straight is a big no no..

On other notes, market is now open and closed quite stagnant with only 0.7% increase since the suspension started. Indonesian government has also announced the increase of third party fund guarantee for up to IDR 2 bio for every bank's customer. I think government has taken whatever it takes to assure our customer. Under this kind of circumstance, even old player investors can get panicked, let alone our traditional customers who rely merely on saving account and term deposit. Assurance, that's what our customers need. It is our government's task to ensure that their money are safe and to make them believe that we still have strong economy fundamental for future growth and developement, despite of the whacked out of US economy.

My life and nowadays US falling apart economy are a complete statement of 'oh-hell-'Im-living in-a-reality!'

2008-10-12T22:35:00.003+07:00

weekend menu

My parents haven't been around for the last two weeks during Lebaran holiday. I spent 9 days in my auntie's house since they left, but I came back home since last Friday. Nothing is better than your own room, really. I've learned to appreciate what I have, who I am and how I position myself in different situation.

This weekend was fun. The traffic wasn't that bad, I think most people who'd gone back to their cities are not here yet. I went to a wedding invitation last night of a colleague of mine. I got chance to see many people I see in the office everyday, only in different outfits and completely different atmosphere. I saw some girls tightly hugging with their boyfriends and fathers with their wife and kids. Its really interesting when you got to see others' another side of life you've never seen before.

Another story, Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) has been suspended since last Wednesday. They opened until 11.08 am, but decided to discontinue the trading until further notice due to the significant drop of equity index. The index plunged for more than 10% in one day, it has reached the lowest point during the year. This the first time happened in our market, I believe many people have shown different reactions upon this decision. It decided to open for Friday's trading, however they should take their decision back cuz' regional signaled a worsening market. I think it should be back to normal by tomorrow though.

I also met my boyfriend's best friend and his wife today for an afternoon coffee at Bakoel Koffee. It was a great catch up and we decided to continue the chat during dinner at Tokio Joe (TJ). But at the end, only half an hour before we were supposed to meet, they texted my boyfriend to cancel the dinner. Their 6 month old baby was still sleeping and the babysitter was on her leave. That's only a small part of the commitment of having your own kids, that's what they had silently taught me.

But my boyfriend and I still managed to go to TJ and met up with another best friend of mine and her hubby. I really enjoyed the food and the company. I wish I could do more of this, especially with my other girlfriends. It's just made me miss them even more :(

2008-10-03T11:19:00.003+07:00

life is a picture perfect

How could a picture justified as perfect? Tidy outfit with a big grin plastered on your face? Beautiful sunny days at the background with your beloved one next to you with that familiar smile?

If that is called perfect, then I would not want to have such a life because life is unfortunately not always about sunny days and laughter. It doesn't always about your beloved ones who are always ready to be the shoulder to cry on. As the matter of fact, sometimes you're expected to stand on your own feet, while you think you're not yet ready to stand by your own.

Life with its flaws, rainy days, darkness and tears has completed the full meaning of life itself. What we called 'failure', 'heartbroken' and 'disappointment' , they actually give definition of 'success', 'falling in love' and 'satisfaction' some extra feelings that we would not be able to comprehend with our simple brain. It won't be the same feeling; for being success without ever being failed or falling in love again after a break up.

I would never ever had a picture perfect life, because my life itself is already a picture perfect.

2008-10-02T13:01:00.003+07:00

my second lebaran

We enter Idul Fitri holiday this month, the second time for me since I came back to Indonesia.

I still clearly remember the same holiday last year, I went to Puncak with my parents and bunch of their friends. I didn't want to go, but I was left with no choices. My maid wasn't present (holiday), meaning I would be all alone at home. I didn't mind to stay at home by myself but my parents did, so I reluctantly joined them.

I also clearly can recall, how brokenhearted I was at that time. I didn't have many friends around at that time (my best friends were also out for holiday) as much as I do now. I just came back for less than 3 months, I was adapting and I was jobless. I was mostly absent minded during those times, while listening to some Chinese songs that helped me to re-live some good and bad memories I had in the city I lived before.

A year has passed and now I'm in completely different situation. I'm no longer jobless, I have a stable relationship, I have a lot..I mean A LOT of new friends scattered around this city and I have a new exciting career to welcome sometimes this month.

Other than those material things, I also have became wiser and own deeper insight about life more that I've thought before. I realize that whatever I have ever dreamed and asked for, they are now slowly reveal themselves, hidden somewhere under my ambitions and expectations . I should digging a lot to eventually realize that I've already blessed.

This is my second Idul Fitri holiday that I more than glad to welcome. In fact, I dont mind to have it a little longer :)

2008-09-30T22:11:00.003+07:00

it's been 2 years

i miss writing. how could i not write anything for ages?

2006-11-30T23:51:00.000+07:00

:: Some Notes of My Reminiscense

Many people have asked how I've been doing since the very first day I was in China. The answer never really came out so easily from my mouth. Whatever you've ever heard from me, believe me, it wasn't that easy to say.

At the very first day of my arrival, I was totally fine and a lil bit excited. I remember that I once sent a message to my auntie in Melbourne, told her that I was fine and this city wasn't that bad after all. My dormitory turns out to be better than what I'd expected before, my Korean roommate is very nice, the building is very clean and my surrounding is good.

Everything was good except after the next 24 hours. I can still perfectly picture how miserable I was during the next few days. I had this nervous breakdown when I stupidly just realized that 600 TOEFL score or 10 years English course won't do any little. In China, they're useless.

Things couldn't be any worse than these; when you were in an area you're unfamiliar with. I can't say a damn word, can't read a damn character, and let's forget about writing. It was depressing and mentally tiring. I remember when I was busy calling my friends all around the world *well, not really. but friends from two or three different countries though*, in search for people who can speak normal human language. At that time, listening to Norah Jones at Starbucks couldn't be more indulging, to hear people speak English felt like listening to heaven's sounds. I had a terrible Melbourne-sick, I couldn't stop calling everybody in there or at least asked them to call me.

I know it sounds stupid. I know that I sound so weak and naive. I couldn't believe it too, cuz I always believed that I'd be strong enough to live anywhere. I believed adaptation wasn't that intriguing anymore. But things were really not that simple.

But again, I don't have all the time in the world for anymore whimpering and whinning. After a while, I've successfully proved myself that I can and I will be able to make it in this country. I've got to move on, I have to survive. That's exactly what I'm doing now.

Another life lesson is well learned: that life is all about surviving.

2006-11-29T14:38:00.000+07:00

:: Today was so weird...

In less than 12 hours, some not so happy things were happened today.

some friends were in bad mood. they just left the restaurant during lunch without giving any sensible reasons. I wonder if I'd sometimes done such those things, and if I'd hurted somebody else's feelings. Ruining such a happy mood occassion and just being absentminded.

Today, it took about fourty minutes waiting until our lunch meals were ready to serve. Those waitresses should be grateful for my not so good chinese skill, but alas for me.

After a while, my day doesn't sound that bad, huh?

But in the end, may be some unhappy things are just have to be happened. To balance whatever we're doing. To remember that when we're in the top, we also have to look down and think. Or when we're down, we have to believe that we will and we have to flying up and high.

I don't know what i'm writing here..hehehe. just a thought.

2006-11-26T06:55:00.000+07:00

:: To Get [Or Not] Get Used To It

It's been more than two months since the first day I arrived in Beijing. And I'm happy to say that until this stage my life is quite back to normal. School has been busier than usual, *yes, for some of you who think that study language is a piece of cake, sheesh, I completely disagree with you*, my brain has been fully loaded with tons of chinese characters, and thanks to my own so-called expectation to go to C class next semester *pheeew*, I've been working harder than I should have to.

One of other things I've done to have my life completely back in track is that i'm back to my workout routine. I go to one of the best local gyms in town that luckily enough to have english-capable-speaking manager. God bless whoever who can speak english in this country.

My study time has become more and more intense each day. I just finished mid term test and it went good unless my chinese pronounciation throughly needs more works. Tones is another obvious problem I've always encountered. My english is no good either, I have lack of chances to speak with many different people except to some classmates and my gym manager.

On the other side, I stlll don't get and would never understand some of these things - Ooh, don't tell me you've never been warned!

a. That locals chinese have super and amazing skill of 'expectoration' with full stereo and surrounding sounds. the aim is usually quite remote and let's the whole world rest assured, they are somehow capable of doinwww.cg it in correct aim and environmentally saved. at least i'm still fine until this very second. and to get over its sound or multimedia effect, thank lord to iPod.

b. Still and still don't quite get it. Locals speak too loud. But again thanks to iPod, it saves my life.

c. Toilet is one of China's biggest issues. To bring tissue anywhere with you is one of the commandments of living in China. But that's not the only thing. You might be surprised that some people just let the door open while they're doing their 'business'. I leave these options for you: one, walking straight to your toilet pretend nothing happened, or two, if you think courtesy is still needed in this awkward moment, to say 'Good Luck' or 'Have a Nice Day' is another option. Although I've never done the later option.

d. Blogger has issue in China. This is another fact why I haven't posted anything since a month a go. I'm so sorry for my BeijingDP sites, it's been badly abandoned. But today I just knew that blogspot is back on track, I'll be back to write.

But other than those issues, I'm okay. And the best part of living in China I like the most is I do less shopping. And for unknown reason of why, here, I feel content for what I have :) There's always a bright side of everything, don't you think?

2006-10-31T19:23:00.000+07:00

:: When the time has finally reached its end...

Time indeed flies fast, and now we've reached the end of October. And for me the last October has been something really great. Many things have happened; my constant boredom in a new country, graduation, new friends, holiday, Melbourne, trips, and many else.

1. I had my first national holiday week in China. And I used the most of it :) My parents came to visit me and we were off together to Melbourne to attend my graduation.

2. Before Melbourne, I and my parents went to visit HongKong for 3 days. I had old relatives there and it was very nice to meet all of them. HongKong itself is very amazing and this city is very cool. I stayed at Miramar Hotel on Nathan Rd. The situation of the hotel is perfect, you might want to try this hotel if you had a chance to visit HK. From what I've experienced, I guess people would hardly get lost in this city because they are very generous in providing signs! The signs are everywhere and provided in bilingual, so you won't get headache trying to figure out chinese characters.

And ohhh, HongKong Disneyland is a disppointment, but it's good enough for someone who has never experienced Disneyland in other countries...like me...

3. A week in Melbourne was definitely way too short for me, but I was trying hard to enjoy every second of it. Melbourne, as always, is beautiful :) On the first day I reached Melbourne, I went to Dockland to have lunch with other 6 girlfriends of mine. We had lunch at this western restaurant, I had duck risotto and a cup of flat white, as usual. I REALLY enjoyed that moment. Good weather, good chat with good friends, while accompanied with good foods and drinks. Does anything else matter? I don't think so :)

4. And the thing that makes my stay in Melbourne unforgettable was that I tried to lead a normal life like I used to have when I was staying in that city. I went to gym, I had late dinner, I walked here and there most of the time, oh..I went to uni..by train and Monash shuttle bus..haha! I also went to several cafes in city and Laygon St, grabbed take away coffee, shopping, and took some photos. It was engrossing that I had fun while I was trying to lead my normal life.

5. Oh, I also had some special ocassion like had a fine dining with a friend *oyster,oyster,oyster* , had breakfast at Port Melbourne under a sunny and beautiful day and had last minute shopping at Bourke St. And graduation and its after dinner was actually good and memorable. I loved every bit of it.

6. And I came back to China. I started school again and had my normal activities back again. But at the end of the week, another trip was coming. It was a trip to Mutianyu Great Wall with our teachers and class mates. Here for stories and photos. I also finally received a heartwarming email from Mase, my dear virtual friend from Melbourne. It really made my day :)

7. Guess what, after just less than two weeks, me and some friends decided to join another tour to one of China's province, Xi'An. So I, a girl friend and other 2 guys decided to go during last weekend and spent 4 days there. We departed from Beijing around 4 o'clock and had spent almost 13 hours on the train. It was really really a trip I won't forget forever. Four international students whose chinese are far from perfect, decided to go to other province in China with its completely different chinese accent, foods and everything! I, myself still couldn't believe that we actually did it :D I'll post some photos and stories later on, atm go and have a look at here.

Till this very moment, I reckon October 2006 will be a good reminiscence. AlthoughI had too much good trips and holidays lately-according to some people-, I think those things are good for me in order to balance my stressful and depressing moments along with my efforts to adapt in this new city.Life might never be an exactly picture perfect like you've always wanted, but still, life can be beautiful.

At the end, I hope you have a beautiful day today...beautiful start of the new month. Take care :)

2006-10-18T20:29:00.000+07:00

:: My Final Graduation Night

T'was a perfect graduation day. The weather was warm, although it was a bit windy. It was a lil bit hard to deal with flying dress *oh,forget about the hairdo* things, but everything was under control. On the other hand, everybody was there, my beloved parents, family and friends were all around me. Somehow I felt so special, rewarded and blessed. I couldn't stop smiling :)

Some friends came to drop by, while some attended the whole ceremony with my family. Friends from overseas gave me calls and sent me some congratulation messages. Unfortunately, one of my ex-housemates couldn't make it to come, but she sent me beeyootifuuulll flowers via courier few hours before the ceremony :D It was so nice, I literally had it with me all day long :)

Apart from wrong pronounciation of my name *as usual*, the ceremony run pretty smooth. Although this was my second graduation ceremony, I still had this hard thumping heart inside me while trying my best to attentively listen to the person who called out my name.

Afterwards, we had a pretty late dinner together with the families of my fellow graduant. We had wines, good chats and laughs. We called this a celebration and it was good to celebrate it together.

After all, it was a fine and perfect graduation night.

[I might not be able to reach this stage without my beloved supportive families and friends. Million thanks for each one of you. ]

2006-10-18T06:31:00.000+07:00

:: Someone said I've been Westernized

Yesterday in the class, my Thai friend asked me whether he'll see me next semester in school. Then I said yes, because I don't think 4 months would be enough to learn a language. And since I'm here anyway, I'll finish what I've started in oder to fulfill the purpose of my existance in this country.

Then he said, "But it seems hard for you for being here. " And I gleefully answered, "It's not I don't like it to be here. But I just found it hard to get adapted in this country, everything is so completely different." And then he quickly replied, "I think you've been Westernized already."

Maybe yes, maybe not. To move to other country is like moving from your own comfort zone. We can't complain but to accept and learn how to blend with locals. Yes, I admit I've found it hard to do. It's a inconvinience thing to deal with. Different people with different orientations. Different habits and different tradition.

Regardless of what people saying, I am, however, still an Asian.

2006-10-09T23:47:00.000+07:00

:: in melbourne

all the sudden, all the familiarities of this city came back in.

same weather i used to keep complain about. but not now.

same route i used to walk to uni. but it feels different now.

same foods i ate. the same foods i still enjoy.

same ambiance i used to take for granted. now i precious every second of it.

same friends. same room. same apartment.

same laugh. same wild imagination with friends.

it does feel like coming back home. not 'visiting', like what is written in my passport.

...3 more days i should cherish.

2006-10-03T23:38:00.000+07:00

i'm going to melbourne...

i'm going to melbourne....

i'm going to melbourne...

i'm going to melbourne...

i'm going to melbourne...

i'm going to melbourne...

i'm going to melbourne.

i'm going to melbourne!!!

2006-09-28T21:59:00.000+07:00

a new photoblog

remember, i once posted some links about CityDailyPhotoBlog? Until now I still constantly go to those cool sites and admiring those wonderful pictures they capture. i think those contributors are just amazing, it shows how much their passion for photography. and an idea to post a photo of their cities each day is very inspiring.

i recall when i used to live in melbourne, i was thinking to contribute and become a part of this cool community. but who am i to compare my so ordinary photos with this and this blog. those two photographers i always admire and through their pictures just make me deeper in love with melbourne ;)

however, since i've moved to this city, i just realized that they don't have any cityphotoblog from any cities in China. i heard before that China used to block Blogger, but fortunately rules have changed hence blogging now has become no hassle. so, i thought, why not me? i know my photos are not as good as most of the contibutors' and most of my photos are not worthy of displayed. but come to think about it, it is the beauty of this city itself that make a photo look beautiful. what a photographer does is to take the best moment or the view from his/her own angle in order to obtain a great picture. in addition of that, editing is also another option to beautify a photo *which i don't really prefer to unless simple necessary editing*.

and this city are just too interesting to be missed.

so, for now on, I'm part of this cool worldwide community called CityDailyPhotoBlog and will actively contribute my daily photo of Beijing. Visit me daily at http://beijingdailyphoto.blogspot.com and don't hesitate to leave me any comments :)

Wish me luck :)

2006-09-21T22:16:00.000+07:00

:: unforgivable omnivore

i don't really know since when my passion towards foods have started. but i reckon it was sometimes when i used to live in melbourne. and it grew even stronger when i finally started to cook my own foods and baking some cakes.

melbourne, best known for its great variety of international foods. european cuisines, japanese sushi, malaysian nasi lemak and laksa, indian foods, chinese yum cha, vietnamese pho...you name it, they have it. when there were such lots of options, trying new foods have really become my special pleasure.

china, an interesting country with intriguing foods it offers is another reason for me to be curious. a lot of people said that all those chinese people really eat everything that alives. famous examples such as scorpion, cocoon, cockroach, are just some of them.

i was on the way to Wang Fu Jing in with a large group of friends, when the guy from my agent told us that we were gonna eat some fried scorpions. i was like, what??? he said it is the only place that offers such an excotic foods in this city and it tastes good. and when i was in the middle of putting that idea inside my brain, he asked me, "do you wanna give it a try?"

i wan't sure. really. i mean, this food we were talking about is not those kind of foods normal people would eat *no offense*. seriously! but on second thought *to change my mind in a split second is also one of my expertises* "why not???"

taa daa! it didn't taste that bad after all! i actually paid for 2 serves of fried scorpion and had a big bite of cocoons :D next time you come to this city, don't worry to give it a shot! it wouldn't kill. curiousity will...

2006-09-20T16:05:00.000+07:00

What has been happening??

Many things have happened in my life for at least the last 3 months. Confusion, deepest agony, tears, laughs, every feeling you can name in the world. I lost counting how many *new and old* people have come along and gone away during this period of time. My life has dramatically changed, but I am still i am, who look strong from the outside but yet often cringe in search of reliefs.

I left Melbourne already. I've finished my degree and brokenheartedly decided to go back home for good. Many people feel sorry for my final decision. Well, that's fair enough. As all of you've known me quite well too, right? ;)

Curiousity kills, agree? That was exactly what I felt about this country I live in now. To travel to many countries and cities has become my obsession since the first time i stepped my foot outside my own country. And to go in this country I currently live was one of them. To be honest, the familiarity of Melbourne has really kicked in and to move from my own comfort zone didn't sound like a good idea. That's why until three months a go, i kept the option away from my head.

But the opportunity was in front of my very own eyes. And I know I couldn't miss it. True that so many things were greatly sacrificed and things have to be compromised to reach your ambition, so did I. My heart was and still ache each time I think about Melbourne and all the memories I had in that city. Although I'm still so thankful for my awesome bunch of friends. They really made my leaving felt both so hard but yet easy. I know we were all sad, but their laughs and wise words were really comforting than saddening. Because we all know that we're surely gonna meet again...

Before I left Melbourne, someone told me that even though it sucks to leave, i have to believe that better places and better things are waiting for me. and i could only say, i really hope so.

So,,,here i am. A completely different city like i used to live. I've found so many crazy excitements, bizzare foods, and culture richness in this city. Admittedly, I have this thing called (for umpteenth times) culture shock in me , but thank God I'm still survived *which I almost doubt it myself*. Shocking and entertaining, not to mention it is also depressing :(

More stories coming up. I can't wait to write :D

*vveen, reporting from the capital city of China, Beijing :)

2006-09-16T05:35:00.000+07:00

Where am I now???

For at least 4 months forward, I will live in this new city. To start a new life, to get new, if not bizzare experiences, to travel and not being stuck at one place, to keep moving on and see another part of the world. Although so many things have been sacrificed, bucket of tears were dropped and my whole body were painful due too excessive time spending on a plane...still... I've decided to go.

Do I love it? Do I enjoy? Did i cry buckets? How about Melbourne? How about my beloved friends and families out there in Melbourne?

One question has been bugging my mind, "will I be able to survive?"

2006-09-14T15:15:00.001+07:00

Of course I will write again.
I will be back very very soon with stories...

clue: I am desperately homesick :(

2006-08-07T11:20:00.000+07:00

:: finally, out of town!

remember that i've been involved in monash peer support program? again, i was asked to lead this bunch of students for a trip to puffing billy, belgrave. i was overzealous when monash international called and asked me to go with them because i'd always wanted to visit puffing billy. and finally i got the chance to go there. thanks to monash and this program, i got free ticket including train and entrance fees. yay!

#2. Puffing Billy Railway
Old Monbulk Road, Belgrave 3160 (Melway ref: Map 75 F10)

on 30th of july, sunday morning, we met up each other at appointed meeting point for early leaders briefing. later after that, around fifty students joined us and together we walked together to catch the train at caulfield station. as usual, train timetables are very lousy on sunday so we had to change trains 3 times before we reach the final station of belgrave line. it was my first and longest trip on a train, especially zone three line.

there were only five leaders in this trip, so each leader was responsible for around 8-9 students. my own group was consisted of five students from china and four from thailand. i frankly admit that i was so nervous that i wouldn't be able to icebreak the silence situation between these two groups. i handled such a 'big indonesian only' group in my previous tour and i think i did fine. but this one, i frankly wasn't so sure. after a few gimmicks of taking as much photos as possible, finally they talked to each other! after the introductions, finally the conversation naturally flowed. pheewww...

it took an hour trip with train from caulfield to belgrave station. as soon as we reached belgrave, we went out for lunch around belgrave town. belgrave is a very typical quite and nice town you'll find in victoria. they had some restaurants/cafes and also some shops but alas most of them were close on sunday. so i and part of the group had our quick lunch at puffing billy cafe and others opt for subway. after that, we straight popped into the steam train as scheduled.

a brief story about puffing billy; it is an australian old steam train from 1926. it's been running along the mountain track from belgrave to gembrook passing through the scenic Dandenong Ranges [mainly taken from www.puffingbilly.com.au]. we took almost an hour on the train, sightseeing the magnificent ranges of dandenong and stopped at menzies creek. from the train we could possibly see some local's houses, but sightviews are mostly dominated by trees, hills and lake.

if you're after the quiteness of a small town and eye soothing view of green forest, you can try this place. unlike other public interests in victoria, puffing billy is one of the most approachable sites. with distance only around 40 kms from Melbourne CBD, driving or public transportation options are both fun.

want more pictures? take your time to click here :)

2006-08-06T18:36:00.000+07:00

:: i've been procrastinated. badly.

let's sum up what i'd been doing last couple of weeks.

i went to several places, including some new tried cafes and restaurant, puffing billy at belgrave and art exhibition and gardens. in my case, i'm gonna write something about those new places, not that i'm doing restaurants/cafe review or something. i'm gloating.

so, around friday two weeks ago, i couldn't sleep. at all. for the whole night till dawn i couldn't even close my eyes. so around 6.30 am i decided to take a walk around city. first i went to southgate area, i swear it was a very cold morning! i took around 600+ photos that morning which i will put them in my flickr account.

that morning, i had a plan in my head to hit my new favourite cafe for breakfast. so let's start the story!

1. Cafe Andiamo
36-38 degraves st, melbourne 3000

my first experience of having egg benedict. i'm sad, i know. anyway, it was a very attractive choice for breakfast, better than the big portion of big breakfast or scrambled eggs. i really liked it though. as you can see from the photo, it really does look so tempting and it does taste fine.

for you who don't know what is Eggs Benedict [EB], i'll patiently explain. EB is poached eggs that usually served on the top of english muffin. in my case, they also put leg ham in between the egg and the muffin. and finally served it with spinach and hollandaise sauce. it looks so posh, doesn't it?

according to my cookbook reference, EB was initially created in a restaurant called Delmonico, New York City. There were Mr and Mrs. LeGrand Benedict, regulars at this restaurant, who complained there was nothing new on the menu. and EB was the result.

i was so excited to try my EB for the first time. it is a genovesse coffee, and the barista is very good in coffee making. he is so quick but always never fails to create such a nice coffee and serve it in perfect temperature. it may be just me, but i do sometimes feel annoyed by some baristas who serve extremely hot take away coffee. i don't have forever to wait my coffee to cool down. but this guy is good.

and the EB? well, of course it was nice. the size is alright, the poached eggs were 'wow' and the spinach was the best spinach i've ever eaten. EB is absolutely another favourite option for breakfast menu and i'm looking forward to try it at other restaurants. for EB from Andiamo, i might be biased because this is my first time experice. no comparison. cannot complain.

quick commment: service is alright, food is okay, coffee is excellent and fairly cheap. price: $$. recommended!

2006-07-28T02:54:00.000+07:00

:: physically absent

do you know what are some bad things that usually happened while you're away from your own home country ?

in my case, four years being absent from dearest family and friends, this is my missed out list;

one cousin's wedding and one old pal's wedding,
two new year's eves with family,
three cousins' births,
four friend's visits from overseas [and only god knows when they'll visit jakarta again],
five best friend's graduation days,
some family trips/holidays,
umpteenth family birthdays and gatherings.

and will miss out some more later on;

the first opening day of my bestest friend's business end of this month,
my very first [niece/nephew] birth in september,
two new cousins' birth also in september,
a friend's wedding in november,
another good friend's wedding in january.

please note that i'm not complaining or regret a thing. but, do you notice how this wedding thing has become frighteningly popular in my age? o_O

ahh..tell me about it ;)

2006-07-26T00:02:00.000+07:00

:: traveler wannabe

raise you hand if you are a traveler wannabe!
raise your hand if dealing with immigration department always gives you unnecessary headache. or may be your 'perforced thrifty lifestyle' disable you to fly to other countries?

then, welcome to my day-dreaming world! and let's go with me to visit other cities from our own tiny monitors...

i have some cool sites here i always love to check out every single day. they are daily updated and positively enjoyable. they show pictures, pictures and pictures! *now you know why...*

let me show you some of my favourites. so, here is my birth city. this and this are my current city. oww, don't forget here, my dream city. i also regularly check out singapore, sydney, paris and some other cities. for complete list of other cities, feel free to click here.

do you know what are the best things from all those sites? i think they're cool because those pictures are daily updated *d'oh!* so these pictures are sort of updated. and those pictures look so special cuz' they are not those you'll find in tourist brochures or travel agent advertisments. those pictures, either taken by amateurs and pro's, are original photos from the actual people who live in that particular city. their point of views and stories behind those pictures, what i think, are interesting.

for other purpose, these links are also useful as your future traveling references.

for now, i'll just stick to my original purpose of day dreaming. .

2006-07-24T13:15:00.000+07:00

.....
We upstage.
A bird seeking
Freedom of the cage
To be young remain young
And never ever age.

by. firoze shakir

2006-07-23T23:53:00.000+07:00

goodness! it seems like my brain doesn't corporate really well with me. i'm completely blank and less inspired to write. absolutely no in the mood to write something genius or inspiring (now who says i always do?), even reading books doesn't interest me. it came to the worst when it took more than two weeks just to finish 180-something pages book.

but i'm so into photography thingy right now. i've been bringing my camera where ever i go. i went to many different places last week and took so many photographs.

then, let's talk about those boring pics i took. and for your warning, as you can see, i'm definitely not a pro so hopefully i won't bore you to death. fyi, you can enlarge the image in order to get bigger and better view by simply click on the image.

so, the first picture you're looking at is the toilet door at my campus. yeah... i know i'm weird. anyway, i just love those posters or writings plastered all over the door. it surely didn't look good, but i found that some conversations are very interesting! i had great times and smirks on my face while reading those comments, thoughts and excerpts, my only entertainment during the loo time at uni.

second is the picture of an old lady on her wheelchair. she was having a relax afternooon with her daughter along the shops in clarendon st. while her daughter was picking some flowers in a florist shop, she grabbed a cigarette from her bag and smoked. then me, i grabbed my camera from my own bag cuz' i just seemed interesting for me. this old lady seemed so enjoying her smoking time. i'm sorry for not so nice and clear picture, but i was trying my best to be seen not so obvious while taking her picture. i just feel not right everytime i take someone's pictures especially a particular stranger, even though i really like to catch people's facial expression.

the third picture is a beautiful building of port philip city council and was former south melbourne city council in 1901. isn't that a beautiful old building? some fine details, high and tall pillars and great old antique victorian style make this building very distinct and so precious. there are something special about old buildings that we we will not find in modern building nowadays. luckily we have quite a bunch of these kind of buildings in victoria. nice.

the next photo is one of my favourite indonesian cakes; the layered cake! i always love this cake made my auntie back in my home country. thanks to my mom who nicely sent the cake to me via my housemate who just came back from her holiday.this layered cake is made from many intriguing thin layers. i wonder how my auntie, as a baker, can deal with it every single day. and i just can't have enough of this cake.

and finally, here is the last picture. some of you might know that i've been practising with macro function in my camera. it is surprisingly cool, and i like it so much. most of my macro objects are flowers and food. but personally, i love to take shot of flower because it is lovely and to take a picture of its detailed complexity and beautiful hues, is just fun! i could spent almost an hour only to take shot of one pot of flowers from every angle. the last time i did it in front of state library, to my surprise a lady walked toward me and directly look at my camera. and when i perplexedly looked back at her, she was just smile and went away. i thought i might be looked so funny for her.

one day i told my friend that i think it'd be so hard to become a pro photographer. i know that they can't help it when they look at a particular object that interests them from their point of views but may be not for others. for example, taking picture of a bird, door handle, cup of coffee or even just a simply blue sky. others might think it is a bit 'unusual' to take picture of a door knob, but who knows they will end up with those trully kick-ass photo.

and yes...it is hard to be a pro.

2006-07-18T22:08:00.000+07:00

...

Qoute from Mer's Blog: Miss Indonesia Says Indonesia is A City.

" Being able to speak English is a plus, not a necessity, for Indonesians. In fact, most people in Indonesia do not speak fluent English. My parents, for example, don’t speak English at all. And there’s nothing wrong with it. There’s no real need to speak English in the country. Nobody is valued less for his/her inability to speak English.

However, representing Indonesia in international context is different than merely being Indonesian. For country representatives, being able to speak English properly, if not fluently, in my opinion, is a must. And sometimes, it’s better to speak in your own language — meaning: having an interpreter — rather than forcing yourself to speak English just to put an egg on your face. And hey, not only on your face, but on the face of your country!"

i received this email few days ago from a friend in indonesia. along with these couple of paragraphs, the writer also transcribed the actual interview of Nadine Chandrawinata, indonesian representative for Miss Universe Pageant this year.

at first, i didn't believe what i saw with my own eyes. i mean, i seriously thought that the transcript made here was merely a joke. so i decided to go to the official miss universe website, hoping i could find the record of the interview. and i did. and i was...

*speechless*

and i couldn't be more agree with what Mer said above. even the transcript still looked better after listening to the actual interview. i was so stumbled, not in admiration, but in confusion. however, i will not try to judge her in anyway. my english is not flawless so i won't judge her english skills. even though from what i've heard, there were some major errors she'd made grammatically and to make it even worse, sometimes after a long line she'd spoken, the sentence became trully meaningless, if not funny.

now this miss-indonesia-interview-thingy has been badly ridiculed in our country. oh dear, may be this is just another big rock nadine had to jump over it. surely, it must be a challenge for a person whose english isn't her mother tongue to speak fluent english in front of set of juries. and recorded. i believe, she had this HUGE nervous attack!

on the other hand, unfortunately, public were not happy about this. since nadine is a miss indonesia, plus a miss universe contestant, people off course have a very big expectation towards her. because nadine couldn't be mistakenly chosen and has been carefuly prepared, so people are naturally believe that she, as an indonesian representative for international relations, is capable of -at least- speaking proper and correct english.

however, nadine is a beautiful girl with that body every girl would die for. i do believe she'd prepared for this pageant the best she could. to be honest, it wasn't a good interview. but she's been gone so well out there and her own controversy really has brought her to fame. i think it is unfair for her to be mocked around by her own countrymen, how about support? she did something embarrassing, obviously! but it was not a mischievous mistake. at least she didn't do corruption like some governments do. she is representing indonesia in eye's world.

so c'mon guys, give her a break....

2006-07-17T01:22:00.000+07:00

playboy indonesia *again*

i'm still surprised even after the third issue of this magazine in indonesia, some people are still being so fussy about it. i thought this so-called 'pornography issue' are no longer a big topic in indonesia, but surprisingly according to the news it's been quite difficult to find this magazine issue. so i guess there is still quite a controversy going on about this magazine being published in this country.

and most of the news agencies and news stands in indonesia even refuse to sell this magazine. according to them, they are afraid and worry for selling Playboy (PB) magazine due to some threats that might bring them to 'danger' if they keep selling the magazine. so that is why this magazine can hardly find anywhere in jakarta. even if they are willing to sell it, they can not sell it publicly.

this topic might be an old topic and sound less interesting to be discussed nowadays. but i just can't stand it and my question is WHAT'S SO BIG DEAL ABOUT IT? i mean, if it's all about the degradation of our nation's moral, then by burning down the magazine and publicly threated the magazine publisher, does it mean they're showing to indonesian future generation of how a good moral should be? puahleassee...

FYI, i'm not a big fan of pornography. as for myself, i might probably will never buy that kind of magazine. do you see what i mean? i mean, the choice to buy and consume the magazine is fully on the right of the customer. they are the ones who own the money. if those extremists think that PB as a state of demoralization, what about the other published magazines in indonesia? not only some international magazines like Maxim or FHM, don't forget the local magazines or newspapers like Popular and Bibir Merah? they are far worse that the first issue of PB itself.

and if some people think PB is degrading moral of the future generation, why not educate the distributor and the newpaper agency to sell the issues under certain conditions? for example, by refuse to sell the magazine under 18 years old. or in any other way that i think those smart indonesia people are able to think of. why not setting strict regulations about how to sell and distribute matured-age magazines? it worries me so much cuz the kids can very easily buy matured age magazine in our country.

the most hurting part is how these people are very uneducated about sex. it's very sad to see there are so many cases out there; when the morons are happened put a hidden camera inside ladies fitting room or even toilet and distribute the records and the photos in the internet.

from my point of view, those indonesian perverts are evidently in a very need of 'that' kind of entertainment. so i think by playboy is being published in indonesia, does it mean the need of this kind of entertainment are utterly fulfilled? and to save those innocence girls who are embarrassingly harrashed without the knowledge of being so, isn't it better to see the ladies in the approriate magazine who are really really willing to elegantly pose for them? rather than putting inappropriate pictures of a girl in a toilet??? whatda?

and even the most ridiculous part is when they brought the covergirl model of the first PB issue to the police. the police then suspected her for doing something with indecency and pornography action. what about the above case i've mentioned before? have any of them bring down the moron who evilly placed a camera inside the ladies fitting room and intentionally distibuted the records for public consumption? how the hell with that? where all the police when we need them to do right things?

*sigh*

sometimes it's really hard to understand some people's point of view. even though i value the idea of diversity but still violance and threathening actions are two ideas i couldn't agree with. i still believe this matter can be solved in a mannerly way *finger crossed*. in my opinion, to build a good moral in our country is by setting a example of positive attitudes. and the above two way of approaches are not even close for being just good.

note: this posting is simply a wondering notes and writer's way of thinking. the purpose is to share my idea and stories based on what i've read, seen and heard via internet and news. i'm not trying to attack anybody in any ways, who am i to judge? i'm just being a smart-ass! ;)

2006-07-15T22:43:00.000+07:00

:: My Neighborhood

this is picture i took from my room window. that building is the other apartment building right across my apartment, and as you can see the view of the other building is quite clear. may be we can even see each other from our own windows...

while looking at the other apartment building, i sometimes wonder what are those people in there doing. not that i mind people's business, but just looking here, back from my room, through the window, we may know how society in this so-called 21st century looks like.

some rooms are bright and some are dark. some people let their glass door open, while the other close it tight. some people are watching tv, they don't aware that their very neighbour are watching the same channel. some let the light on during sleep time, some turn it off. i saw some people chatting with their friends, while some sit in front of the computer. some people obviously enjoying drinking, while the other are just sit on the couch, alone. most people haven't reached home before midnight, and some are staying at home on friday night.

even though apparently neighborhood in apartment building is very minimal, from what i can see from here there is a possibility for them to actually get connected to each other. as i said before, some of them incidently watching the same tv show. or some of them are just sitting on their sofa on friday night. you see how these kind of similarities could actually bind them together, but who the hell cares?

in fact, the rapport within our neighborhood nowadays are just as simple as "hey,imkindarunoutofsugar" or "turndownthemusic,goddamnit". you see? even in my apartment if someone apparently disturbing us with their loud music, all we have to do just go down and talk to our concierge and let him do the job! as per security point of view, this is the right thing to do. who knows what is going to happen if i, for example, have to face a big and drunken guy in the middle of his party?

is it somebody's fault? nope. it's nobody's fault. in the mean time, security might have taken our first priority, left behind other things. this is modern neighborhood, live with it!

2006-07-14T20:56:00.000+07:00

::Missing Summer

melbourne's weather has been so 'cruel' these days. constant temperature between 6 - 13 celcius degrees. not to mention the rain.

i miss blue sky, heat of the sun, shorts, and pair of havainas *sigh*

2006-07-13T00:03:00.000+07:00

::Moment of Truth

tomorrow is the my official exam result release. 13/07/2006, 12.00 pm. but thanks to modern mobile technology, students can apply for sms services for free in order to receive their results via sms.

i and my other friends always use this service every semester. interestingly, our results release through sms are earlier than the release through monash website itself. and since all of us are kinda of familiar with this service, we know exactly what time approximately this 'most anticipated' message will come and how exactly the message will look like.

so here is the drama on how and when the message came through our mobile; first, start from 3 pm monash usually started sending the message. second, the number is unknown. third, the content of the message will certainly giving you several abrupt reactions for both physically and mentally; you'll smile and be happy when the results are fine or you'll get upset or even crying when the results are not as expected. so...

and since our official result will come out tomorrow, we had predicted that the result were likely come out today. and since then each time i heard my mobile phone beeped, i got a sudden heart attack. and i don't know why today i received many sms' from unknown numbers more than usual, so you can imagine how i felt.

the location may vary. last semester, i was drinking hot chocolate at Max Brenner, QV. today i was at Borders, Melbourne Central while reading a book: Beijing from Lonely Planet. and i heard my mobile beeped, and again my heart was jolted down. while i was trying to find my mobile inside the bag, my mind went nuts. i couldn't wait another minute...

and there it is...

unknown number. the message starts with this: my.monash S1 results:....

after re-read it for onlygodknows times, i put down my phone. slowly laid my head back to the wall behind me. i closed my eyes for a minute and thank God to find...

i'm no longer a student.

2006-07-04T18:43:00.000+07:00

"hello! do you need any help?"

...
"do i?"

i went to peer support program at monash caulfield this morning. i decided to volunteer for this program to help new students who are new to monash, or may be to melbourne. i never expected helping these peeps could be so fun and exciting, if not funny. well, four years a go i was exactly in their shoes ,so i perfectly understand how it felt; happy, excited, jittery,clueless, bemused, any adjectives in the whole dictionary, you name it!

i and other vietnamese girl peer leader sat on the registration desk to greet the new students. we were really eager to say hi to every new students who passed by in front of our table. some of them were very friendly, some asked general question such as enrollment or unit adding, some of them asked only God knows the answer question {well, not really} and some of them even looked at us in horror as if they were looking at ghosts!

what we practically did were actually welcoming them, asked if they found any hard times doing the enrollment. if they did, then we refered them to right person. if they were pretty much done with those things, we then encouraged them to have a cup of coffee or tea together. then while they were enjoying their meals, some of peer support leaders would then had a bit chit chat with them. we usually started with a bit of introduction {i can't remember how many times i said things like this today: "hi, welcome to monash! my name is vveen, nice meeting you. i'm doing master of business system. what major are you doing and so on and so on.." we offered them helps if needed, such as accomodation, transportation or grocery things. it's pretty much basic things.

the most amusing was when i chatted with whole bunch of indonesian students. i explained them so many thing they inquiried like, culture issues, foods, mobile phone plan option, explained to them what 'cap' means, uni exams and assignments. and just like i hated it when the lecturers and the librarians kept mentioning about plagiarism and references, i eventually had to share it to them because i know in indonesia plagiarism is not a big issue and reference or citations are not big deal. see, even things that we thought are very ordinary or even never been considered as a knowledge, surprisingly for some people could be very helpful and useful.

it's true: and the great thing in 'give & take' is to take, but the greatest thing is to give.

and do you know the best part of being peer support leader, other than free monash t-shirt and free lunch? i don't have any idea before how many new friends i've met in just less than a week. and they're from everywhere in the world! isn't that fascinating? some of them are wackos, control-freak, and even gay :p but they're all nice friends.

i'll be missing another fun uni activity. damn...damn...damn!

2006-07-03T21:39:00.000+07:00

for the past three months, i have finally returned to my gym routine like i used to do. even though gym routine is obviously not fun, i'll always try my best to make it to go to gym. i don't mind to go alone, or with friends. i enjoy to follow class especially non cardio programs such as pilates and body pump. i do combat and jam sometimes, but i don't prefer them. i avoid yoga, definitely. it makes me fly...to the lala-land.

i won't deny that sometimes those programs are tedious and repetitive, they bore me to death. but each time i can manage to lift certain level of weight in pump class, or certain pilates workout i wasn't able to do before, the good feeling of achievement definitely creeps in. and that makes me want to do it more.

it hurts, for sure. hell, it always hurts. even i've done the same workout so many times, it still hurts. and each time while i'm doing it, i always say to myself, "why the hell i'm doing this for? it bloody painful!" and yeah, i think, "why am i doing this to myself? so i can fit in my pair of skinny jeans or keeping my size under 8? or sink down my body weight under 50kgs *which is very impossible for now*" i'm not a person who very much obsessed with skinny body nor a diet freak. i'm the last person on earth who cares about low-carbs diet, atkins diet or whoever-he-is diet, or yo-yo diet (what the heck is that anyway), i never give so much attention to all that. life is too short to be wasted, and one from many ways to enjoy life is eat.

because i enjoy good foods. because i never skip desserts. because most of the time during pms i'm a sweet-toothed. because oh...i love carbs! (puahlease..i'm an asian). because i like to bake and make dessert. because when i bake a cake or cookies, i avoid low-fat ingredients (cuz' last time i used low-fat thick cream, the tiramisu turned out to be a bowl of porridge!). from physical health perspective, i have low blood pressure. if i don't go for workout, i'll be very weak and get dizzy easily . lack of energy is a big no-no for a person like me cuz' i always go everywhere within 1 km by walk. i drink alcohol occasionally. i drink beer and wine. in fact, sometimes i prefer beer instead *but looking at homer simson's picture on the wall...i'll probably need to cut it off*

i checked out my bin just now, and i remember, i ate a bar of chocolate waffer and a box of banana pocky just before i went to sleep last night *blush*

i always remember what my auntie said to me about diet and things like that. she said she used to easily manage her body when she was young, but when you get older, it seems like a bite of chocolate bar in your mouth could change your body entirely. it sounds overstated but you know what she means. as we get older, as well as our inside body systems are really hard to get compromised. that is why i think one way of keeping our body healthy and to stay in good shape is by doing a healthy habit since we're young. keeping our food intake and constant workout are the least things we can do.

mantain a healthy lifestyle since we're young. that's the key.

let's keep these in mind.

1. no pain, no gain.

2. we feel your pain, we celebrate your gain.

3. energy: the more you give, the more you gain.

in case one of you who read this is a manager of a fitness center, please do think to hire me. cuz' i start to really sound like a fitness first sales person now :D

2006-07-02T11:36:00.000+07:00

:: Bacon & Eggs

found this short parables from a bulletin church this morning:

what is the difference between involvement and commitment?

perhaps i can best explain this by way of analogy with bacon and eggs.

in bacon and egg, the hen is involved but the pig is commited.

2006-06-30T23:50:00.000+07:00

another trivial snapshot from me.

this picture is very loongg overdue. taken back then on december, 2005.
i was on my way to highpoint at elizabeth st, city.

Enjoy your weekend guys :)

2006-06-29T15:10:00.000+07:00

:: 'End Of Semester' Steamboat Dinner

there we were, 6 of us, closest fellows from business system, monash university when I held a steamboat dinner at my apartment. including adrian, umar, irv, arbi, miki and myself. so, i came up with the idea of steamboat dinner since this might be the last chance for all of us could come up together.

so, about the foods. i actually had prepared for some ordinary steamboat thingy such as enoki mushroom, some vegies, tofu, fishball in any kind of shapes, and chicken meat. i also asked the adrian-umar-arbi to bring some drinks and miki, a japanese friend voluntarily made us some nice sushi. but apparently, irv brought so many seafood things. we ended up having a seafood steamboat. it was great and we really had a wonderful time. good foods, bizzare seafoods, fatty tiramisu all together have made that night was simply unforgetable :)

i had gone through the worst of anything that night. imagine this, your friend came to your house to have a dinner then he unexpectedly brought a crab, which he himself even thought it was dead, but it wasn't! so, at the first hour of dinner we did brainstorming of the right way to kill the crab, and at the end cook it. anyway, finally someone came up with the idea of how to kill the crab. then we did what he said accordingly; boil very very hot water and pour it to the crab! geezz...that was sooo violance. haha. anyway, to make this posting quick, i'm gonna tell you what was happened next in sequence. after we're sure that the crab was already dead, we decided to get away from chances of that crab would bite us or do something nasty. so, i stabbed it! yes...me! *pheewww*

then, we steamed the crab at separate pan..and voila...it turned out to be good. but wait, another was still coming. this huge squid almost made me faint. it came with everything God has ever created for a squid. i mean all the eight arms and the tentacles...oh. not to mention the ink. and the worst was i had to cut it all myself even though i have no experience at all about it. but seriously, irv really brought us every kinds of seafoods in the world. you name it. he brought a big fish's head, huge squid, bizzare crab, yummy scallop, and the idontknow white fish. and yes...it was a lot. when i asked irv how on earth he could bring such these things, he said, "i don't know. i just picked the most bizzare ones"

i served my own made tiramisu for the dessert. and it wasn't bad at all. it's full fat, for sure. but i didn't ruin anyone's diet program since they were really willing to eat it :) overall the dinner was really nice. we talked and reminisced about our uni times, and oh this is one of them; so this lecturer taught a business system subject. she's from singapore and she doesn't need to tell because of her accent. and...this lady really really really always like to talk like this: "blah..blahh..blah...you know? blablabla...you know? or "blablabla...alright? allright?" we really did count how many 'allright' and 'youknow' phrases came from her mouth but we eventually gave up because we lost counting!

last but not least, i realized how blessed i am *again* that my life are filled with such amazing people that had helped me a lot went through all hard uni times. and really, you guys made my uni experience are even worth to be remembered. keep the friendship, shall we?

2006-06-27T23:21:00.000+07:00

just another boring weekend story...

so...let's go back to friday.i ate the most expensive pie i've ever eaten. it was a duck pie from mecca restaurant and i paid $34 for it *so unforgetable*. it was a unusual fine dining with a housemate. we were definitely spoilt that night. anyway...

ermm...on saturday i went to city in mission to get a pair of flat shoes. *okay boys, skip this part. it's gonna bore you to death* and you know what, i feel like i'd walked around the whole city but couldn't find one. geez, why these shoe designers all come up with grand design for heels but funny looks for the flats. till this moment, i've drawn a conclusion: flat shoes are severely discriminated compared to heels. fullstop.

sunday! mmm...i slept almost the whole day. i was hibernating.

monday. i watched the soccer match between Oz and Italy on monday night. i wonder if the match was a soccer match or canes film festival...cuz' that italian player played his role darned well! and the referee's controversial *read: unfair* decision was really really heartbreaking for the aussies. and i think i can't be more agree to what my friend said this morning: "i think if that referee thinks to visit australia, i hope he'll think about it again. unless he wants to die."

today: i sometimes wonder how women's mood can really be affected by their appearance. for example, i went to hairdresser to cut and dye my hair today. i don't care if it looks good or not, but i feel good about it. and it really made my day. most of my girlfriend feel that way too after we pamper ourselves. so boys, when you have a 'cranky girlfriend day', my advice would be: take her to a hairdresser would be a bright idea.

and ohh...i went to shark fin this morning for yum cha *chinese sytle breakfast*. from some dishes they served, one of them was duck tongue! *gasp* i've never tried it before, but since i'm a faithful duck lover, i was a bit curious how duck's tongue would taste. but the other hand, i kinda imagined how the duck feels, but anyway... and i ate them. haha. and they're good :)

picture: jelly fish in the middle, surrounded by the duck tongues! i wonder how many ducks they've killed for this only dish, not to mention everyday in the restaurant...

2006-06-22T20:57:00.000+07:00

behold, i bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all melbournians:

"for there is opened to you this day in the city of gate of fountain *well, it's fountain gate actually. only to make it sounds more dramatic* , the yummiest glazed doughnut ever that we've all been waiting, dreaming, and drolling over. and this will be the sign to you: you will find a doughnut shop, with a green and white billboard on the top of it saying, "Krispy Kremes", located at fountain gate shopping center, naree warren."

finally. after all the waits, victorian can sigh in relief. finally. we don't have to have someone to fly over to sydney to fulfill our gluttonous needs. finally. a decent doughnut store that sell a decent doughnuts. too bad it's located far far away from my location, but it's okay...at least naree waren is more approachable than sydney, and we don't have to share our doughnuts with the attendants on the plane.

all come all yee doughnuts gazers...let's have something to munch!

2006-06-20T15:41:00.000+07:00

i didn't turn up to federation square that monday morning as i and my housemate planned before. it was jam packed with around 12,000 people watching australia vs brazil football match.

my housemate, she fell asleep at 1 am and i decided not to wake her up. so, i grabbed my blanket and move my pillows to the living room. i strolled to the kitchen after any of these; instant coffee or milk or milk tea, but couldn't find any of them *sigh* so i took a wine glass and pour out the white wine. good stuff. at least i didn't shiver anymore after that.

it was a really cold morning. and it took a heroic action to actually plan to go out on 2 am to city and standing freezing. luckily i didn't. if i did, i'd probably look like a zombie the next morning. *did you, mase? ;) * i ended up watching the match myself, under the blanket while drinking wine. in my very own living room.

aussie lost. but it wasn't the end of the world (cup). another chance to grab on friday morning. and another chance for me to go to federation sq and join the crowds to watch the football. and may be it's going to take more than heroic action to actually go to city, by walk, for about 15 mins from home in cold and windy winter...to watch aus vs croatia match, 5 am in the morning.

you better be good mate!

2006-06-18T20:09:00.000+07:00

:: i love melbourne (?)

as i'm currently in my final study, some favourite questions people really keen to ask me are something like this, "so, are you going back for good?" or "what's your plan after your degree is finished?".

but surprising statements (not a question) came out from couple of my friends i'd talked to days ago. they asked me at first, but when i was about to reply, to my surpise, they spontaneously said, "ahh...i know you'll stay here. you like it to live here in melbourne, right? " or "i can't see yourself leaving melbourne for good" and "you seem to enjoy living in this city very much, don't you?"

fyi, these friends i had a brief conversation with are not my very close friends. i mean, i do talk with them more than once, but never really talk about what i feel or what i think. you know what i mean... and these two people also happen not knowing each other and the conversations were not at the same time too, so i was really curious how on earth they could say such a thing, came to such a conclusion and dubbed me as a loyal melbournian...

i wonder how these people could end up wild guessing about me because i really never said it out. as long as i can recall, i've never worn a t-shirt with I LOVE MELBOURNE plastered on it, or use a kangaroo keyring for my apartment keys. or even boomerang for room decoration. not even drink from a cute koala mug. i don't even have any single of them.

"how could you tell, my dear fellas...i wonder???"

2006-06-16T11:11:00.000+07:00

no title for today. apparently nothing appears in my mind right now.

i finally managed to make a NY cheesecake two nights ago. i started at 11.30 pm till 4 am for the last touch. i could barely stay wake up while waiting for the cake in the oven. and in order to prevent a massive cake burning in my house *and at the end putting my reputation as a domestic goddess in jeopardy haha*, i watched the ukraine vs spain match till it was finished then bugged my friend who was working in texas far far away. to kill my time we together tried to reminisce our silly school anthem and one of the hardest indonesian traditional song. it was hilarious and effectively made me stay up till the whole cake process was finished.

and yesterday was definitely my socialization day. i went to uni to share some friends my cake. it was really nice thing to do. then, i went to John Medley library to borrow some books. afterwards i went to my auntie's house and reached home around 8.30 pm.

and this oh-not-so-socialized-girl has decided to stay home today. snuggling in the blanket while finishing her book. i've been thinking to learn to make my own mochi and triple chocolate cheesecake near in the future.

now i know what's the today's title: a domestic goddess, i am.

2006-06-14T22:42:00.000+07:00

:: trivial #1

why there isn't anyone comes up with a glorious thought of creating another kind of police department or new line in army forces for special area such as 'old pervert extermination'? they are just too much around in melbourne nowadays. and please beware all melbournian girls and ladies, because these guys are super-ultra disturbing and too annoying. unless you're interested, tell them that you're allergic to caffeine so the invitation to get you to the nearest coffee shop is the worst idea, ever! now, get lost!

2006-06-14T12:48:00.000+07:00

:: SAP-football-x-men3

i'm finished with my exams *giggling*! to be honest, the exam was hard and been studying for SAP R/3 subject for last whole week had made by mind gone bananas, my eyes to the lowest level of sober, and the revelation of truth that IT is not AT ALL my thing. fullstop.

okay...let's skip the exams drama. the sadest part of my exam preparation was the fact that i had to skip the football match between australia vs japan on monday night. a girlfriend did ask me if I wanted to go to one of the city pubs to watch the match, which i had,must,should declined. i got an exam on the very next day, i even missed the match on tv. and i really missed a good match. a really really good match. *sigh*

but i'll make it up on 19th! haha. australia vs brazil is definitely gonna be cool. i have always supported for brazil and argentina for years. and this upcoming game would be very very interesting, since i live in Australia where all these people here worship sports faithfully. and i can't wait for the athmosphere of this city is gonna turn out to be...i'll bet the whole city would be flood by 'socceroos' supporters, going yellow and green from the top to toe and cheerfully join the crowds on the streets.

on another topic, i finally watched was X-MEN 3 last night. *okay...i heard that GASP* just realized i haven't got a chance to go a cinema since two months ago. And FYI, i've never watched x-men 1 and 2, but i can say x-men 3 is a good watch. And another FYI, if you are about to go for this movie *which is very unlikely*, please remain seated in your cinema seat even until the movie's finished, and all the credits rolling because... there is a very last part of this movie after that long-long credits. yup most people have missed this part, even myself, and my friend just told me last night. aahh...that is why patience is very important.

i think i should hit the cinema again very soon for this movie. and i've been craving NY cheesecake, and i'm making one tonight *finger crossed*.

2006-06-11T19:25:00.000+07:00

:: i and God, last saturday

last saturday, i had this must-go schedule on my agenda started from 10 am. i had a prayer meeting at church. since i'm one of the workers at my local church so it's a compulsary to attend the meeting every month.

and the slacker me was trying to avoid that meeting cuz i was thinking to go to the library instead preparing my exam this tuesday. but...i didn't feel good about it. so, on friday night before i went to sleep i made an agreement with God. i said, "God, if you want me to go to the meeting, please wake me up tomorrow morning and i'll go. otherwise, i'll go to the library instead." it was around 12 am.

then i lied on my bed preparing to sleep. but after around 30 mins i still had my eyes opened wide. so another threat to God, "seriously God, if you want me to go then i need my sleep. i don't care how you do it, but please just make me fall asleep."

it didn't work.

fine! i woke up around 1 am and turned on my computer again. after some useless browsing then i finally decided to take an ultimate-hard-to-do-decision, i will clean up my room! then there i was, throwing those rubbish bag to the rubbish chute, sorted things out cuz' another donation day is coming, cleaning out tables, wardrobe, and finally finished at 2.30 am! *gasp*

i went straight to bed while sincerely doubting my capability to wake up early in the morning.

and whadayaknoww???

i woke up 'several-hours-later' and my immediate action was looking for my mobile phone. *okay, i don't have whatever-kind-of clock at my room. even an alarm clock. even that.* and i was checking out my mobile and taa daaa....it was 7.30 am! i was like...okay...this is a bit too early. so i tried to sleep again. but i guessed God reminded me of our agreement last night because at the end, i couldn't sleep. i woke up as fresh as the baby born who just has slept for 10 hours straight. I thought at that time God surely said: "seriously, I want you to go."

i guesses i just had to go. God won. and even though i lost, i didn't regret even a little that i went to the meeting that day. it was a good day. and so for the entire day.

God just always knows what the best for me. His blessings are sufficient, i will not lack of anything.

2006-06-09T22:44:00.000+07:00

givethanks:before-sleep-daily-routine i have a room for myself to sleep. i have heaps of comfy pillows, warm blanket to cover my body from winter cold and little bear i can cuddle each night. in addition of that, i also have a picture frame which keeps reminding me that 'i am loved', a book *currently veronica decides to die by paulo coelho* to kill my time, ballet performance flyer i took from uni today *me, wanna go and see it :D *, and a cup of hot tea is just perfect for this cold winter night.

i'm blessed. even from glance of the corner of my room, i know i am. there's nothing in your life you can't thank God every single day.

2006-06-09T10:03:00.000+07:00

:: 5 years from now...

last night I received an email from a good friend of mine who currently resides in singapore. I think she's kinda in a deep agony. she sent me two or three emails yesterday, but this miss-so-busy has been SO busy,,,I just don't have time to reply a long long email. may be I can do short. but that wouldn't answer her question. so this is my reply. cuz I know you'll read this, girl.

she asked me: "What's my vision for the next 5 years from now?"

when I read through her mail...I was like...doomed?! The thing is, this is a hard core question. at least for me. to be honest, I just don't have time to type a reply. but the main reason is I don't even know where I'm gonna be NEXT MONTH, so i'm pretty much dumbstruck by this whole VISION question. let alone what my life will be in 5 years.

you might think i'm such a planless girl in this whole world even she's got no slightest idea of what she's been wanting. the problem is she knows what she has always wanted, but she's just sickly worried if it isn't the best one for her.

who doesn't want the best in life, anyway?

ps. hey you, this is part of my reply for your mail. currently i just don't have time to justify every bit of my so-called 'vision'. my advise is: cherish your day, like there'll no be tomorrow. it does sound cliche, but it works.

cheers.

2006-06-08T20:12:00.000+07:00

:: When three careless girls live together...

7.30 am this morning, three girls were about to leave theie apartment. One was going to uni for test, one had to work, and another girl gotta go to library to study.

And in the middle of the rush, suddenly one of the girls said:
V: Where's my keys? I couldn't find them.
M: Where's my socks? I always couldn't find the other pair.
S: What? You can't find your key?
V: Ahh...don't bother. Let's go.

M: Wait...I still couldn't find my socks.
S: Well, you can use mine, but they all have been used...hehehe. Interested?
M: No thanks.
S: Do you have ones for her to wear, V?
V: Mine? I don't think so though. Just wear anything...

...after 5 mins...
M: I wonder why everytime I wash my socks in the washing machine, they always come back differently.
S: What do you mean?
M: Yeah..each time I wash four socks (2 pairs), at the end I get four different socks. They're not in pair anymore.
V: That's impossible. May be they're just discoloured. I also always have a problem with socks. Everytime I wash them they just never come back to me in pair together. I think everybody has the same problem with socks.
M: But it happens to me!

...5 minutes later...M still couldn't find her 'other' sock...
S: Hey, wear mine. I've found one! Well, it's just half pair though. Wear it with yours.
V: Yeah..who cares anyway. You see mine? Even though they look similar, but I got Nike on my left and Reebok on the right.
S: Yeah, me too.
V: oh..yeah...it occasionally happens to me when I wear pink bear sock on my left, and stripy pink on the right. Well,,,at least they are still in the same shades :P

M: I hate it!!!! *still couldn't find it*
S: Wear mine!
M: Well, fine. I just wear mine then. But they are mismatch.
V: But you're about to wear your boots right?
M: yeah...anyway.

V: Anyway, let's go. We're late. One of you, lock the door please. Remember I don't have keys ;)
S: Bye home, take care...

Then these three girls left their apartment building, each of them was wearing different socks on their feet.

2006-06-06T10:16:00.000+07:00

:: Things I Want to Remember

Hi, it's me! Back to write again...

I've just had my exam this morning. One test is down but still have another exam coming though.

Like usual, exam period is very exhausting. Both physically and mentally. In contrast to my last exam periods, I've been trying really hard to 'enjoy' this semester exam. My master program will be finish this semester and it means no more uni tests and assignments in the future and please get rid from the suggestion for taking PhD program :P

To let you know I am a person who is never satisfied. Now I've been bitching all my assignment and test at uni, but probably I also will do the same when I get involved in the workplace someday. And at that time, I will surely miss my assignment, test, etc. That is why I would like to write things that I would like keep in mind, in case, 5 years later, I will envy the future uni students.

Three weeks a go: I remembered so clear how I hated it so much when I had to go to uni for group assignment taht Sunday. I almost cancelled the meeting, but I guess what I was going to do was just prolong the conclusion of my assignment. So I forced my self to go to uni, half hearted, and sleepy eyes.

Two weeks a go: Group assignment report was due. After a night chat with a groupmate, finally we were done. Got it submitted and had another individual assignment to go. Then I started to do this assignment and went for consultation in the middle of the week. Went to library during weekend from 4 to 9 pm. And on Sunday, I was so blank with the extra question given, I just didn't know what to write and what to do. My groupmate came to my house, hand me his assignment cuz' he asked me a favour to submit the assignment for him. I tried my best to finish the extra questions and finally finished three question till' 4 am. In the morning I woke up early to do the last question.

10 days ago: I finally received the feedback for both assignments. They were really good actually. Thank God for that. But another assignment was coming up again. So again I spent my time at library on Saturday morning till late. And on Sunday, I went to Borders cafe not for shopping or read a novel, but trying hard to break the code (please note this was ABAP Programming code, not Da Vinci's ;) ) reading thru the lecture notes and research paper found. I was so pressured cuz' it was three more days before the due date.

7 days a go: Went to the last lectures and last tutorials this week. The last of the semester, oh, those may be my last ones in my life, too. It felt like a mixture of excitement and anguish deep inside my heart. Knowing I am not gonna sit as a student anymore and getting excited of what the future may offer my life after this stage. Then I went to library again till late on Tuesday. I, amazingly by grace, finally finished my final assignment that night. I stayed a whole day again at library on Thursday and left my Friday as my day off.

3 days a go: I went to library again from 11 am to 9.30 pm. I and my groupmate studied together in front of library window. We had been there since we felt too hot due to sun exposure towards the window until felt too cold because of the night breeze. But all together, we managed to go through almost half of the topics and left the library at 9.30 pm.

2 days a go: We managed another study meeting. Unfortunately the library was closed at 5 pm, so my group mate decided to have a study group at his office. Three of us including her girlfriend went through our thick and deadly lecture notes and past exam papers till 10 o'clock at night. If I think about it, how funny it was to study at someone's office I've never visited before. But his office is a good place though, and I was sitting on someone's cubicle. I assumed she is a mom, cuz' she put quite a lot of pictures of her cute daughter and bubba. Oh, they are so cute...

A day a go: I woke up early because I had to reach uni before 11 am. Yesterday was very cold, foggy, wet and windy. Wow, what a complete package. After a brief consultation with a tutor, the study continued again at Matheson Library. I was so heavily tired, and starving, and nervous. Yeah..nervous! I got this exam on the following day in the morning, nervous sounds so normal, doesn't it? I planned to sleep early last night, but I couldn't. I slept at 1 am and set the clock to wake up at 6 am tommorow morning.

Today: I couldn't sleep sound last night. I had a big and quick breakfast very early today. And in 1.5 hours I sat on my exam, compete with time, read the questions keenly, got stuck within numbers, and exercising my pelvic muscle like I always do during my Pilates class *seriously, I was utterly in desire to go for toilet, but I couldn't!* After the finish of the exam, I and some friends were involved in a great exam discussion. We were laughed, puzzled, went-aaahhhhh or now-i-know or 'what-the-heck' conversation. But we definitely ended with best wishes for one another.

I will remember these things I went through for the past couple years of my life, I will remember when I was so worn out, the only-God-knows hours stay in library and labs. I will remember the feeling of depression when I was stuck in the middle of the topic, reading it for hundreds times but still couldn't get it. But I also cherish the moment, when there were times after struggling and almost dying with certain topic, I finally found the answer. I will remember walking home from Clayton, caught a late train and got cold during the trip.

I will remember the smell of coffee, my must wake up drink in the morning. I surely will reminisce the foods at Monash cafetaria, which are sucks.

I will remember all the prayer I've ever said to God, before and after the exam. I will remember those restless nights, and oh...the i-don't wanna-wake-up-yet mornings. I also will remember all my close peeps saying, "It's okay, I know you'll do fine" or "Remember, it's only by grace", or may be simple advice, "don't sleep late tonight. that will make you feel good tommorow morning". Or may be an enlightment words, "HD yeah!" :D

For some people, may be what I've been through is nothing compared to what they had done or have been doing. I believe some people out there do work harder than me. Regardless of that, I cherish my experience as a part of my life. Someday, when I need to look back again... here is the point where I will go to.

2006-05-29T09:22:00.000+07:00

:: What da.....

Starring: Nicole Richie with her Ballenciaga bag and oversized sunglasses. Paris Hilton in PINK with her 'Tinkerbell'. And The Bodyguard was trying to get rid of the paparazzi :P

Ps: We really had a good good laugh last night. Please note, we were not under alcohol or anything. We were just insane...

2006-05-27T19:17:00.000+07:00

:: Busy Nights at Flinders St

Photo taken: May 2006 By: vveen Location: Flinders St., Melbourne Occassion: Walking home from gym (Melbourne Central)

This picture captures the other side of the main station in the city, Flinders St. Station. Flinders St station is not merely about a train station, it's a city's landmark. This station has connected many commuters across Melbourne and Victoria suburban since 1854. Statistically, approximately 105,000 commuters and 1,500 trains pass through the station each weekday.

If one day you had a chance to visit this city and about to meet your friend, the famous meeting point is usually "under the clocks". It refers to the row of clocks above the station's main entrance which indicate the departure time of the next train on each line (though some of the clocks refer to discontinued lines).

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org

2006-05-23T21:08:00.000+07:00

:: My Favourite Corner

Where? It's called Degraves St., off Flinders Ln, Melbourne.

Why? Cuz' this place is absolutely exciting! You'll find cafes along the street, beautiful buildings, unique vintage stores, the cheapest dry clean store I've found so far, cozy library and yummy Belgian waffle store!

Favourite? The Belgian waffle definitely on the top, Shag Vintage store is an always visit store, City Library is a place where I can have a nice cup of coffee, while laying down reading a book on the sofa.

Want more? Vintage Retro might look like a trash...but who knows you'll find treasure instead. Teriyaki Chicken sushi at the sushi bar across the library is also not bad at all!

When? It sometimes a lil bit busier during office break hour. In rare occassion, some people use this corner for photo shot or film shooting. The best time may be after 3 pm, but watch out for all the stores in this area are close at 6 pm. Even during weekend. Come too early is sometimes no good. Some stores open after 12 but after that this area is hell crowded.

Advise: Try this one for a really really different athmosphere of Melbourne :)

2006-05-22T21:21:00.000+07:00

:: Melbourne's Weather

One thing I hate about Melbourne is when it comes to its unbelievably weather. It's been almost a month since the beginning of May, we've been constantly under extremely cold weather, wet and windy. Only one single day in this month I could recall, that I was finally able to take off my jacket and said, "It's hot!"

FYI, at this period officially Melbourne should be in autumn season, where the weather should be warmer and nicer. At least you still can walk on dried leaves on the streets without almost slipped over. And by the way, I almost forgot that winter is coming soon starting next month officially. Can you imagine how worse would that be?

Tell me about my constant wearing outfit for season like this. I've been wearing the same two jackets for the whole month! I always tell everyone I really want to get rid of this jacket. It's bulky, it's not nice and it's boring. Okay, may be I'm bored, too. But I need it. I just couldn't get away from it because of this early bird winter! The only thing that obviously make winter outfit *a lil bit* better is only my pair of boots. Seriously! But I just love my boots very much, I don't have a heart to see my boots got wet in the rain or water splash.

What comes early, should go away earlier too, right? I hope this nature law is also applied for crazy season like this. It is very notarious that Melbourne's weather is unpredictable; the 'four seasons in a day' quote, you can have winter in the morning, then spring, summer, followed by autumn in the afternoon. But what else I can do, right? Cheer myself with the tucked in jeans inside the boots...and a pair of gloves, and a warm winter hat, and a fluffy scarf. And now, call me 'a walking-wardrobe-is-hitting-uni' girl...

2006-05-21T20:19:00.000+07:00

::This Sunday

Today I went to a BBQ party celebrating my friend's birthday at Albert Park. Some of you maybe know about this park. This park is made famous mainly because of this big and international annual event, Australia Grand Prix F1 is held in this park.

Albert Park is a beautiful park, situated close to CBD area. You can find a big lake in the center of the park, and from there you can see a great view of Melbourne city. This park also provides some bbq pits where my friend held her party today. The food was never stop and we had a helluva good time. And here is our bbq pit from a far.

2006-05-16T12:17:00.000+07:00

:: Rambling...

Almost two weeks have past since I posted my last posting. Time is surely running so fast. What had I done lately? Pretty much uni related things, retail therapy ;) and another church thingy is coming up. Last week I just attended my friend's graduation day, went to Blue Fire Fine Dining to celebrate. Then on Friday I went to City with a girlfriend, browsing thru' vintage stores and fine boutiques *she was looking for a fine dress* and landing our tired feet at Greco Cafe, Crown Casino Area till' late. Even though we went home empty handed, we really had a good good time.

I went to uni during last weekend. Yeah you didn't read it wrong, neither did I write it incorrect. On Saturday, I and my girlfriend went to Armadale Area to inspect a flat. My girlfriend's boss asked my friend to inspect the flat for him because he wasn't able to do it himself. The flat is good and fantastic. For one bed room flat, the size is perfect. The environment is good, attractive location. I liked it, everybody did. Hopefully, his application would be accepted by the landlord.

Another unusual thing I've been doing for the past few days is eBay-ing. I've been thinking I should get rid og some stuffs I no longer use, and at the same time, get my self a bargain at eBay :) I've been selling bags, shoes, jeans, car cleaners, eye toy and other stuffs are coming up after the first round of auction is finished. For the next one, I'd like to sell books, another couple of shoes and couple of bags. I really coundn't wait till my first auctions is finished. It's just great to see people bid or question or watching your auction. And I'm planning to make a beautiful packaging by the time I should send the stuff to the winning bidder.

By the way, my exam is coming really soon. And this isn't gonna be easy.

That's pretty much it. And now I need to go to toilet for a nature call :p Excuse myself...

2006-05-04T07:53:00.000+07:00

:: Another Feeling of The Day

I'm really disappointed about my my test today.

Just have to do better...

2006-05-04T07:06:00.000+07:00

:: My Life is 78% Perfect. [oh,whaddaya know???]

[x] You know someone that cares about you.
[x] You have a boyfriend/girlfriend/fiancee/husband/ wife.
[x]You have your own room.
[x] You own a cell phone.
[?] You get good grades.->haha! ;D
[x] You have an ipod/ mp3 player.
[x] Your parents are still married.
[x] You have more than 2 best friends.
[ ] There is a swimming pool in your backyard.
[x] You live in a house.
T O T A L: 8

[x] You dress how you want to.
[x] You hang out with friends more than once a week.
[x] There is a computer/ laptop in your room.
[x] You have never been beaten up.
[ ] You never cry more than twice a month.
[x] You are allowed to listen to the music you want to.
[x] Your room is big enough for you.
[x] People don't use you for something you have.
[x] You have been to a concert.
[x] You laugh more than twice a day.
T O T A L: 9

[x] You have over 100 friends on friendster.
[x] You have pictures on friendster.
[x] You get allowance.
[x] You collect something normal.
[x] People don't make fun of you to be mean.
[ ] You look foward to go to school.
[x] You don't wish you were someone else.
[ ] You play a sport.
[x] You do something after school.
[x] You shower daily.
T O T A L: 8

[ ] You own a car.
[x] You usually don't fight with your parents.
[x] You're healthy.
[ ] You've never had a cavity.
[x] You are happy with your appearance.
[ ] You aren't self-consious at all.
[ ] You have never got a failing grade in your life.
[x] You have friends.
[x] You have so many inside jokes with friends.
[x] You know your parents care and love you.
T O T A L: 6

[x] You know what is going on in the world.
[ ] You care about sooo many people.
[x] You are happy with your life.
[x] You usually aren't sick.
[x] You know more than one language.
[x] You have a screen name.
[ ] You own a pet.
[x] You know the words to more than 5 songs.
[x] You don't have many enemies.
[x] You are happy you're living.
T O T A L: 8

GRAND TOTAL : 39
Now count up the number and multiply by2.
Then repost saying 'My life is __% perfect

*copy from Friendster

2006-05-03T18:57:00.000+07:00

Beautiful things aren't easily forgotten...

2006-05-02T21:51:00.000+07:00

I move on, I always do.

But this city would never be the same again....

without you.

ps. I admit, I was close to crying...

2006-04-30T19:12:00.001+07:00

:: Birthday and Being Loved

Birthday is special, true? One day in a whole year, everybody would suddenly turn up in front your face and loudly saying, "Happy Birthday!" Or following the significant technology development, nowadays people easily sending message over the web, blog or mobile phone! Over the past few years, birthday cards are no longer favourite, but people rather choose to use email or e-card to say the word. Easy.

For my self, this year I got heaps of message from friends here in Oz and overseas. Some left message on this blog, some added me new testimonials thru friendster, and heaps of messages were well received. To my surprise, I actually didn't expect any bday surprise this year. I feel too old to get another bday surprise. But thank God my close bunch of people are around on my bday this year and they still wanted to do it. Again. I also received some beautiful presents from them. A vintage style cosmetic box *thanks to Mike*, a cute red MNG top *thanks girls*, chocolate fondue set plus handmade bday card *thanks fen!* and a bunch of red rose thanks to sulfina. Today my friend at church did re-celebrate my birthday too. And the birthday cake was fantastic. I couldn't stop craving over it the whole day.

Double blessings on my birthday as well! These two best friends of mine, who practically doesn't know each other, live in two different countries, but really did sent me exactly the same verses from Bible. I feel so double blessed..*wink* Thanks for the prayer guys,,,and Di, you're right, "Karena doa lebih besar kuasanya daripada kado."

Thank you guys, you're so amazing. For everyone of you who has message me, left message, testimonial or whatever.. You are the bestest I couldn't ask for more. One more thing, I got one person who left a message in my comment box at my previous posting but I really couldn't identify him/her. Thanks for your greetings, and next time please leave me your name or whatsoever so I can thank you personally.

Till' my birthday next year ...

2006-04-28T20:49:00.000+07:00

:: A Meaningful 23

I promised myself to write something to celebrate my own birthday. And now it's 8 minutes before midnight. It might bit a lil bit long though. So, bear with me okay :)

Yesterday, I bought this book from the Mr. Old Man at uni, titled Tuesdays With Morrie. Some of you might have heard about this book before. Or read it. This book is an international best seller and over 10 millions copies are sold worldwide. Me, my self was accidently recommended by a stranger in a public tram about 1.5 years ago while I was reading a book from the same author, Five People You Meet In Heaven. FYI, the author is Mitch Albom.

I started read the book yesterday. The story is based on a true story about an old professor who suffered a fatal illness that has no cure or treatment at that time. So this old professor decided to make the most of the rest of his life *which were very little time*. He shared people his life lesson by giving his very last class to his student. The subject called The Meaning of Life. Only one student attended the class. And the student was Mitch.

There are some interesting topics about life this man had shared to his student. About family, money, aging, love, marriage, culture, community, spiritual and some other stuffs. I found this book is very soul soothing. It does sound very jam packed with the philosophy things and deep professor's kind of thought but however the story were all written in simple and beautiful words. Very thoughtful and inspirational, I could say.

I read this book before I went to bed last night. Until finally I reached this part of the book, the seventh Tuesday with Morrie. The topic was about The Fear Of Aging. Mitch, the student, asked Morrie if he were afraid to grow old. Then gracefully, Morrie said, "Mitch, I embrace aging." When Mitch asked him what it means by embracing aging, Morrie explained: "It's very simple. As you grow, you learn more. If you stayed at twenty-two, you'd always be as ignorant as twenty-two. Aging is not just decay, you know. It's growth. It's more than the negative that you're going to die, and that you live a better life because of it."

But if aging were so valuable, why do people always say, "Oh, if I were young again" You never hear people say, "I wish I were sixty-five." That's Mitch's response. Exactly the same thing I'd ask if I were in his shoes. Then Morrie smiled and gracefully answered, "You know what that reflects? Unsatisfied lives. Unfulfilled lives. Lives that haven't found meaning. Because if you've found meaning in your life, you don't want to go back. You want to go forward. You want to do more, see more. You can't wait until 65."

Then he added, "All younger people should know something. If you're always battling against getting older, you're always going to be unhappy, because it will happen anyhow. And, the fact is, you're going to die eventually.

This part hit me. Really. What he said is true. Albeit I enjoy my life for the past 23 years, I sometimes do feel like if my life were a CD player, I wish I could press the rewind button and live my life back like when I was younger. I've been thinking my life could be much more stress-free and unburdened when I was 18 or 19. But that's not true either. I did have problems too when I was younger and I always wished I could jump to the future and live my life as an adult. I never satisfied. That's the problem.

Today I'm 23. Proudly saying it. I couldn't do anything about it...but to live it to the fullest. I've passed my baby period, my five, ten, fifteen, seventeen, twenty. and yesterday twenty-two. Been there, done that! No need to be envious. But still,,,even though I want to see more, do more, this is the fact: I'm definitely not yet at the stage of saying, "I can't wait until 65"!

2006-04-26T18:27:00.001+07:00

:: Only in Australia...

Cute signs, huh?! You'll never find it in any other part of the world other than in this Down Under land. I usually find this kind of sign on the way out of town. My latest out-of-town trip was to Macedon City and Mt. Macedon early this month. When I saw these signs on the way back home, I asked Mike to pull over so I can get them pictured! Too bad it was dark, but thanks to the car light, then I was able to take couple shots of them.

After that, we continued the driving. And in a speed of glimpse, suddenly this 'thing' came out from the bushy side of the road...about to cross the street. And guess what? It was kangoroo! But never happened to me before the Koala would actually appear on the road or crossing the street. I always see Koala on a gum tree. Maybe next time?

Photo taken: 9th April 2006 Location: Macedon City Occassion: Macedon trip with housemates!

2006-04-25T21:46:00.000+07:00

:: The Royal Botanical Garden Melbourne

This picture was actually taken last year around the end of November. One day after I purchased my new camera. I was so excited because of the newbie *wink* and for only God knows reason, I kept thinking about Royal Botanical Garden (RBG) as my first hunting spot.

That above picture is a picture of a little lake in the middle of the RBG, which is located pretty close to the CBD (Central Business District). I think the concept is pretty much similar with the Central Park in New York City, USA. Without the ice skating arena off course.

The photo, if you look at it really carefully, is not really right somehow. The proportion at the right side, the stitch. Yes the stitch. That's one of many features available in my camera I should get used to it. So when I saw this beautiful landscape which I'd find it difficult to get it in one shot, I thought, "let's just use the most of these features then." So, this picture is my first stitched photo. I combined three pictures to make this photo of landscape. It wasn't hard, but the tricky part was the times when I needed to hold my camera still without the tripod help.

Other than that, RGB is a beautiful garden. I just have to go there again sometimes. Let alone myself burried behind the camera... I'd always love to enjoy what Mother of Nature has given us...

2006-04-25T14:16:00.000+07:00

:: The 'Basa-Basi' Thing

Oh my goodness...how I hate to do that. But apparently, all my friend agree that I'm very good at it. I don't understand why on earth we have to do that. I understand manner, but not sweet talking or other crappy things like that.

In Indonesia, you must have to do all the sweet talking, even though you just barely know the person. When you want to eat, you have to ask them if they want it so you can share it with them*eventhough you only got a lil piece of chocalate*... but still you'll get criticized if you do not show or not even trying to show any intention to do that.

What I think it doesn't make any sense is just there are so many unimportant protocols in our social life. I believe 'basa-basi' almost does nothing to improve our social skill, nor to help to create a better and honest relationship with other people. I think it's just bullsh*t. Thank God, for the last four years I could find a place where privacy is greatly respected. While privacy is really appreciated in this country, amazingly manners, honesty and social kinda relationship still can go along together, hence create a healthy social environment rather than in Indonesia.

The hardest part of this is when you have to do the 'basa-basi thing' in this country. I'd rather reading a textbook and staying in library for hours. Or sleeping. I just can't being nice and 'she-always-smiles' kinda girl. I think I never have adequate topic to talk with people...especially when I'm not in the mood or in the middle in something or while I'm having PMS. I prefer just quite. I think, 'how-are-you' greetings or 'very-nice-weather' today is more than enough. I don't have to be introgated like, where have you been, with who, why are you just wandering alone here, where is your boyfriend, have you eaten or the worst, when are you getting married. Sometimes, my heart screams, "Leave me alone!"

The funny thing is, like I've said before, my friends agree that I'm good at it. Maybe, yes, once in the blue moon. When the moon isn't blue, people might get me wrong and accuse me as a girl without attitude or being arrogant. I'm used to it when it comes to people saying bad things at my back, judging me for being flirtatious with boys or whatever. I'm not surprised too, when some of them who did that to me now have become good friends of mine. I'm tired to say this, but hello,..stop judging people. You don't know them, you never gone through what they've been through, so stop being such eejits with nothing to talk, then fill their mouth with useless topic and hurting people's feeling.

There are some points when we have to stop 'basa-basi'. When it's getting dry, don't even try to break the ice. Why we have to hassle? The ice is never there...and we don't need to break any.

2006-04-19T13:21:00.000+07:00

:: Amusing and Great

This is called Memorial Cross located at Mt. Macedon, under one hour from Melbourne City. When it came to the idea to visit this wonderful city, I least expected it was gonna be good. It wasn't good, but it was darn awesome! According to this, in the nineteenth century, Melbourne's wealthiest residents escaped the summer heat and made their way to the townships of Macedon and Mount Macedon, where they built impressive mansions and created some of Victoria's finest gardens.

I was stumbled upon this huge cross and it never cross my mind that I would see that big cross in Melbourne. We arrived too early that day, so it was kinda foggy and freezing morning. The athmosphere was really sacred and yet mysterious in some ways. Love it...

2006-04-18T10:08:00.000+07:00

:: My Botox During Weekend

My internet connection didn't work during last weekend, started from last Wednesday afternoon till today morning. I called the internet provider..twice...cause they promised me it would be working again on Friday morning, but it didn't. But finally they called, and gave me agood news...just this morning. Yay! Finally...

I was so pissed about this sudden internet disconnection without prior announcement or warning. But they said they already sent us a letter to let us know about it. Yeah..whatever! But in constrast, I feel so happy now, cuz' I think the internet connection has already upgraded to higher speed level. I usually download Greys Anatomy for 1 day for one episode, but this morning TWO episodes were done in 30 mins. Damn..it's cool. Haha.

Back to the story of weekend without virtual connection. Weekend felt so wrong without the internet...especially on Good Friday when all stores and public interest places were close, I and my housemates were practically only sat down on the sofa, watched Christmas cartoon program *I don't know why the heck they aired xmas story rather than easter!*

I realized how much this technology named "Internet" has a big influence in my life. Admit it or not (actually, I admit it), I enjoy surfing on the internet rather than watching TV. I cheries the easy of using BPAY to pay my almost overdue bills with few clicks. I love it when I open hundreds of blogs out there and read them for hours.

So glad everything back to normal today. Seriously..what's the website of Desperate Housewives series I must download today???

2006-04-11T21:37:00.000+07:00

:: A Survey About The Women

I found this article from today mX. Interesting indeed, that's why I wanna share it here.

"If you want to know what's on a woman's mind, take a look at her body. She's worrying about its shape and size every 15 minutes, a survey has found. Chunky tights, muffin-top waists and flabby arms are just a few of her concerns.

In fact, only one woman in 50 is trully happy with her body, according to the survey of 5000 women for UK magazine Grazia. The women who worried about their bodies every 15 minutes or so were the lucky ones.

Twenty nine percent worried every waking minute. And more than half blamed their size and shape for spoiling their sex life. nine out of ten said they had dieted, with 41% saying they were constantly watching what they ate.

Half said they had lied about their weight, while almost a third cut size labels out of clothes."

It's freakin' surprising, isn't it? How many women around you care so much about their body issue like there are no more things that are important in life? Do they overconcern their body issue? Or, is it media and publicity have to be blamed over this matter? Or it's just how we define at ourselves for being flawed or fabulous?

Seriously, I'm really surprised. I don't understand why people see those celebrities who lost their weight significantly can be called 'sexy'? Do they just look like bunch of peeps who suffer malnutrition? Then, what's the good about it?

There are much much more things in life than just body weight issue. If I had a muffin-top waist and flabby arm, so what???

2006-04-11T14:18:00.000+07:00

:: Candles

I always fond of candles. Not that kind of ordinary candles or birthday candles. I like the scented ones like camomile, lilyflower or anything smell comforting. Anything but lavender and vanilla. Lavender is 'too-everywhere', in your shampoo, your detergent, your car perfume...and vanilla never fails to remind me of ice cream..so it's kinda no good!

But don't get me wrong. I've never had even one! The problem is those scented candles I love are usually cost me damn expensive. Once I found a nice 'i-forgot-the-name' scented candles at Peter Alexander store. It smells gorgeous, very light and warm. Everything about the candle was purrr-fect, but the price. Shit. So I walked out the store, wishing someday somewhere I would find similar candle and don't forget, cheaper! But it's not easy. I never find one!

Today, I went to Myer and browsed thru the scented candles section. And again, I found a very beautiful white candle put in a glass. When I looked at it, I knew for sure its price would hurt my savings. The way of those candles were designed are trully elegant. Not to mention its scent. I claim that candle has kind of aroma that works as a perfume for your room. I'm talking about the devine ones, the expensive ones! If you took this candle home, I believe it would give your room a warm and yet very luxurious effect in it. Damn sure.

But yet for another time, I passed the chance. Again, I walked out from the store, wishing not for a similar nor cheaper candle. But praying for somebody would be kindly enough to have it as my birthday gift in approx. couple of weeks. Haha.

2006-04-07T09:52:00.000+07:00

:: Shame On You

"People with lack of confidence are pathetic!"

When I used to live in suburb couple years a go, my neighbour had a dog which keep barking behind the fence each time I passed the house. Albeit I'd never seen the actual dog, but from the bark and its attitide, I could say it was a little dog. The only thing it could do was no more than barking all the time, but far from biting.

In the real world [I mean in the human world] some people also have this similar charateristic. They 'bark', they boast, they bluff, they never sick of telling something make her/himself prouder and look stronger. Sadly, what we see is merely a person with lack of confidence trying to convince other people things that they might be incapable to do. Or worse, forcing people to believe that they are worth it because they feel worthless.

What a pity.

2006-04-03T20:41:00.000+07:00

:: Untitled

Geez...it's April! I couldn't believe my eyes when I checked out my pink organizer this morning. I checked out my Grand Prix ticket I went to yesterday and the date was 2nd of April...so today is 4th!

By the way, I realize I've been neglecting this blog for ages. Remember when I posted my last posting from Indo? Now I'm back in Melbourne again and been here for almost 2 months but still have written nothing!

So many thing I should catch up when I came back here. Things I should tidy up, things I should get used to it again, but believe me...I'd done that in no time. My excitement is out of question, my life was like having its sparks again. My hectic schedule might stuck my head in distress, but my sprit feel like it is breathing again.
About my study, currently I take 2 very interesting subjects which I couldn't take them out of my mind these days. They're really interesting in some ways, not boring like the other subjects are. Checking out Australian Financial review has become my daily habit each morning. Not to mention YahooFinance website or SAP software.
If you'd seen my new blog layout, yes I changed it couple of times about weeks a go. But unfortunately, I wonder if I have to do something better than that. So I stopped. I decided to change the whole layout again. So please, be patient :)
I'm kinda thinking I need to update my blog again soon. I started to feel the importance of this, especially for communication with friends kinda purpose. But the main thing is now I realized how many thoughts I just threw away into my rubbish bin of mind. I think I better write them down, sharing them to people, receiving pros and contra's. The feeling of being opened thru writing is just amazing...which I've never thought before.
Anyway, I've been thinking to write something more in the future...something different compared to what I'd done back then. Let's see where my mind will take me...
Until this time, I'll see you...when I see you :)

2006-02-22T12:41:00.000+07:00

:: Oooppss!

Have I ever told you that I'm sick of shopping center in Jakarta, cuz I've always gone there almost every weekend?

But I didn't write that I'm literally sick of it, did I?

Cuz last weekend, it did turn out to be literally. What I mean is I really really did throw up in a shopping center. Very embarrassing isn't it?

So the story was began when my parents took me to a Chinese restaurant in a shopping center. After we finished, my mom told me that there was a new bread store selling a very nice mocha and caramel flavour bread. So we decided to stop by and bought some.

And suddenly when I was in the middle of the queue, I felt my body turned out uneasy. I thought I was sick and my head was hurting me so bad. I looked for toilet but I couldn't find one. I need it because I experienced quesy and I couldn't take it any longer. So I run to the waitress and asked for the plastic bag she was using to wrap the bread. Then I run to the other side of the store, squatted on the floor and finally vomit! :p.

Through this experience, you might think I should have stopped to visit anymore shopping center. NO. I went to another shopping center on the next day..and yet the next day. I almost went for the third day, but I refused. I should have started to pack things, I reckon.

* FYI, my disease wasn't exactly a new allergic named "anti-shopping-center" syndrome or what so ever, but it was simply a common flu. Really. Clinically proven :)

2006-02-18T15:22:00.000+07:00

:: Missing You So Badly

I am one week away from going back to Melbourne and all I can feel is relief. Relief from a thought of that beloved city, achieve my independence back and the most important point is my freedom, the one I lacked of during my stay in Jakarta.

I couldn't remember how many times I went to Jakarta for holiday and yet the same feeling keeps coming in when holiday has been started. The feel of sorry, actually. Thoughts of beautiful small town in Victoria I have never been to, or do jogging early in the morning across the Botanical Garden which is located only 15 mins away from home by walk. I should have gone to different market places, take more pictures of Westgate Bridge, browse to different street not only Collins-Bourke-Lonsdale St, check out some art galleries and eat at different restaurants.

Those are the biggest reason why I miss the city so much....

I wouldn't say this holiday isn't fun at all, when you can always pampering yourself in a beauty salon for your weekend or having a full body massage only cost you no more than 10 bucks. It's heaven here compared to the minimum body pampered I've ever had in Melbourne. But isn't a pampering to your soul does much more towards your entire well being? I have a thought so.

Talk to Indonesian when you wanna discuss about shopping mall. In Indonesia, you can always go to a shopping center almost everyday. Let's say, a good restaurant is in a shopping center, cafe for chat with friends,cinema, bank for transaction and even a gym! Yes..people do workout in a shopping center. And I'm telling you that I'm not trying to be cynical, but it's not a lie if I said I'm sick of it already.

And the last thing is about freedom. I might sound selfish, but here, you have to really really consider tons of things before you go to one place. First thing, the car. Next, the person who's gonna take you there or pick you up from there. Not finish until there, please consider traffic, your father wants to use the car, your relatives coming to your home, your grandma has to do general check up, your servant is unreliable your mom can't trust a thing to her....

I miss the city, my friends, my room. I miss the weather, I miss hi-how-are-you thing, and I miss Spaghetti Carbonara heaps. The real one, the real ham, the real creammy and eat it with spoon and fork, not chopstick. Most of all, I want my freedom back.

2006-02-16T16:36:00.000+07:00

"Ramah Tamah" = "Ramah Menjamah?"
Judul dikutip dari "Panggil Aku Miss. B" karya Fira Basuki

Ada kebiasaan orang Indonesia yg menurut saya sangatlah annoying. Dan itu adalah sikapnya yang sangat ramah. Kok di pakein attribute bold segala sih, vin? Abis, maksud saya ramah tuh bukan ramah yg selama ini saya mengerti, tp ramah yang engga penting dan malah menjurus ke yang namanya kurang ajar!

Salah satu kebiasaan yang menurut saya mengganggu itu misalnya, komentar2 orang yang ngga penting. Misalnya pas ngelewatin tukang ojek, komentarnya, "Aduh si mbak, cakep amat. Mau kemana? Sini abang anterin yukkk" Siapa juga yang mau dianterin.

Ada lagi, klo ke butik Giordano yang gaya penjualnya ngga ada beda sama penjual2 di pasar. Dari jarak 5 meter nih..udah diteriakin, "Giordanonya mbaakkk...silahkann!" Saya yang tadinya mau masuk, urung jadinya. Habis gimana ngga bete, emang saya buta sampe mesti diteriakin begitu. Exclusive dikit kek!

Soalnya jamah2an, saya sih belum pernah ngalamin yg parah. Tapi saya sering lihat di jalan, mbak2 yg mau naik bus kota ditarik aja tangannya sama si keneknya. Padahal siapa yg minta tolong juga…bisa naik sendiri kok. Atau saya pernah dengar lagi, ada perempuan yg mau masuk lift tapi pintu lift keburu mau ditutup. Dan berbaikhatilah seorang bapak di dalam lift, main tarik aja tangan si mbak. Ada juga yang lain lagi. Kalau lagi becanda, suka main pegang2 bahu atau tangan. Aahh...males ngga sih?

Ya begitulah...keramahan disini diartikan sangat jauh dari arti sebenarnya. Keramahan yang mestinya kita temukan di customer service, di rumah sakit, di sekolah itu malah sangat mengkhawatirkan disini. Para shopping assistant yang buta product, suster rumah sakit yang mengabaikan pasien,majikan yg sadis sama pembantunya sampe oknum yang lebih terima sogokan dari koruptor daripada mendengar suara tangis rakyat yang kelaparan.

Ironis ya?

2006-02-11T12:54:00.000+07:00

:: (Almost) A Victim

Bip bip... (bunyi sms masuk)

Open...

"Pelanggan Yth, No. SIM CARD anda meraih Gebyar POIN HADIAH dari TELKOMSEL.
Harap Hb Call Center: (021)68400409 atau (021)68400407.

Option....Reply:

"BULLSH*T!!!"

2006-02-10T12:36:00.000+07:00

:: Flash News From Jakarta:
Kondisi per sinetron an Indonesia

Klo awal tahun 2000an sinetron2 indonesia sgt marak dgn cerita2 anak muda. Judulnya pun beragam tp tak jauh beda. Misalnya, Cinta ABG, Cinta SMU, Kisah Kasih di Sekolah sampai Cinta SMP pun ada. Entah ceritanya apa, tapi yah seperti judulnya, rasanya ceritanya pun tak jauh beda.

Tapi sepertinya, era cinta sekolahan pun sudah lalu masanya. Lalu munculah genre baru, ibu tiri. Di semua tv swasta, pasti isi cerita most of the sinetron adalah kekejaman ibu tiri. Ajaibnya, dari sekian banyak ibu tiri di tv semuanya ngga ada yg baik. Sadis dan tidak berprikemanusian! Tapi tenang saja, biasanya si anak yg kurang beruntung tsb, bakal ditolong oleh sejenis entah bidadari atau ibu peri. Just FYI, cerita tradisional Bawang Merah dan Bawang Putih pun, ada Ibu Perinya. Yang rasanya waktu saya baca buku rakyat 10 thn yg lalu, kok ngga ada ibu peri yg nolongin bawang putih ya? Bukannya itu Cinderella yg ada ibu perinya?

Yg bikin saya miris klo nonton sinetron Indo (kalo ngeliat sinetron no more than 15 mins bisa disebut nonton) pasti cewek yg selalu jadi korban. Ya istri ditindas suami, cewek dikhianati sang pacar, anak cewek dibuang ibu tiri, dsb dsb. Terus, ada lagi nih, kisah sinetron yg ajaib…seorang istri for particular reason ga bisa punya anak…dan berhubung kasihan sama suami, maka sang istri pun berinisiatif untuk cari istri baru buat suaminya biar bisa punya anak. Gendeng kan? Hare genee masih kaya gitu caranyaa??? Baca koran kaleeee!!!

Sangat disedihkan ya, kok kayanya perempuan selalu dijadikan objek penderita. Dan herannya, most of the victims in those soap operas are just quite. Ngga ngelapor, ngga ngelawan, makanya kekerasan domestic di Indo jadi tinggi mungkin ini salah satu faktornya. Domestic violence seems taboo so they have to hide it away from society. Coba sinetron Indo mengajarkan apa yg si korban harus perbuat setelah dianiaya, saya rasa pretty much it would affect Indonesian women mindset. Jadi selain entertaining, education morale juga kerasa.

Di tahun 2005 walaupun most of the time saya ngga di Jakarta, tp sejak krg lebih tiga minggu lalu saya sudah mulai bisa memprediksi kemana arah sinetron Indonesia di masa2 yg akan datang. Bener2 ngga tahu apa isi ceritanya, tp sinetron berjudul Liontin ini kayanya lumayan booming. Soalnya ada kelanjutannya: Liontin 2. Menariknya, minggu ini saya lihat iklan di TV swasta klo sinetron baru bakal tayang. Judulnya,,,tak lain tak bukan adalah….Cincin. Okay, dilihat dari trend ini, maka jangan heran mungkin bulan depan akan keluar sinetron baru judulnya Gelang atau Anting? Mmmm…who knows?

2006-02-08T16:47:00.000+07:00

:: A Fashion Term I Would Like To Explain

I am neither a fashion master nor a magazine editor. Not a foreigner and definitely not an English expert. But the fact that most of Indonesian people use this word in incorrect way, I think I have to do something about it. It might be not correct, but at least by defining it in my blog, it’ll shooth my soul. Hihi...

So…it is about vintage. Yuppp…it is a very familiar sound kind of word, especially for fashionista. Either in Australia or Jakarta, vintage seems very popular. But what annoys me is the fact that the definition of vintage in both countries is very different.

On one occasion, I went to a garage sale in South Jakarta area with some of my friends. It was quite fascinating, cuz’so many Aussie brands they got but at the end, I went home shopping-bag-less . If there was such a word…. In the garage sale, I found they sold both brand new and second hand clothing in a very reasonable price. Don't even dare to see the second hand ones, because they were really awful. The zips were not longer fixed, some buttons were missing and the worse was some holes I found in some garments. My thought was like, "It's not even close with what I called Vintage!"

Then this friend of mine suddenly screamed at what she found, "Look at this! A vintage skirt. Heaven, it's really beutiful, isn't it?" Then I came to her and have a look at the skirt. "It is beuatiful", I said. "How much is it?" Then we tried to look for the price tag and surprised when I found that the 'real price tag' was still there. "It's not a vintage", I thought. "It's brand new, for god's sake!" And again, this vintage thing was repeated once again. When my friend told me that she bought a "new vintage skirt". I was like...."mmm...okay".

What I had concluded about vintage in Indonesian term, finally, is a kind of clothing or skirts that do look peasant, rumpled, flowery, soft colours, with ribbon or lace. Very distinct with what I have understood for a long time, that if you talked about vintage clothing, it must be second hand ones with a good quality. Usually found in a second hand shop or Salavation Army kinda stores. Sometimes in Melbourne we could find some stores dedicated for real vintage stuffs, and they sell things in high quality ones without obvious damage unless signs of wearing.

According to Miriam Webster Online Dictionary, vintage is always related to age. Vintage means length of existence, which must be related with old made or antiques. And vintage is not always for clothing. We also say vintage for old manufactured things such as old piano, antique book shelves, 1950s Gucci collections or even your grandma's old tea cups! And I think Vintage is not always expensive, even I suspect we can get it cheaper if you could find a real vintage in a right store.

What's suck is that most sellers are not actually selling a real vintage. They put vintage label on whatever they want to sell. Sometimes I found fake ones, which do look like vintage but not one. To buy a good quality vintage needs your very own self experience. And the luckiest person is she or he who could find a real vintage in a bargain price for a very precious old made stuff. Can you imagine how much the price of historical arts would be? Fortune, I think.

Well..well..well...what I've explained here might be not correct. Let's just have you to judge it :)

2006-02-07T16:32:00.000+07:00

::It is Not My Thing!

Suatu hari di salon, lagi luluran. Si mbak yang lagi mijitin telapak tangan saya tiba2 bilang gini, "Wah…mbak ini, orangnya pinter ya". Saya sih cuma senyum2 aja, soalnya bukannya apa2, masalah jari2 saya yg pendek2 ditambah lagi kuku yg sedikit itu katanya menandakan klo orgnya suka bekerja keras dan belajar. Hahaha…I wish…

Pertama2nya sih saya cuekin saja, "pendapat umum”", begitu pikir saya. Dan saya pun tetap leyeh2an tidur2an sambil menutup mata. Dan si mbak ternyata masih melanjutkan. "Mbak ini, nanti bakal jadi business woman lho. Ahlinya di bagian wholesale. Jadi pemborong gitu lho mbak, bukan bisnis yg kecil2an." Alahh…kepo bgt sih nih mbak

And the next thing she said bikin gua lbh terperanjat lagi. "Mbak, temen rumahnya mbak yg di Australia itu orang Batak ya." Trus saya cm bilang, "Medan tuh". "Yah…Batak itu ya Medan mbak" *Dziigg…kenyataan bahwa gua itu dulu anak IPS sangatlah diragukan"* "Iya sih…", jawab saya lirih.

Lalu berlajutlah sih mbak ini, ngomongin karakter saya, masa lalu, relationship, sampe orang tua pun dibahas sama si mbak. Ternyata si mbak ini memang punya kemampuan special dari ngeliat karakter org sampe ngeliat sesuatu. Interesting? Well, not for me!

Jujur aja, semakin dia ngomong dan membuka semua ttg saya, saya kok malah jadi parno. Gimana engga, menurut saya rasanya aneh bgt yak klo something inside us diketahui org luar padahal kita ngga pernah kasih tau apa2 ke mereka. Bukannya malah penasaran, atau malah makin nanya2 mumpung ada fortune teller gratis. Rasanya kok malah seperti habis ditelanjangi!

Jadi yah…klo anda2 yg punya kemampuan kaya si mbak salon dan suatu hari ketemu saya, mending diem2 aja yaahh. Mau jadi wholesaler atau ibu rumah tangga, saya lebih suka menikmati kemana alur2 hidup dan kejutan2nya membawa saya pergi. Lagian, hidup ini siapa lagi yg tahu klo bukan si Penciptanya sendiri???

2006-02-03T14:29:00.000+07:00

:: Lost in Translation

When I visited my relative's house in Bangka, my cousin showed me an English textbook for high school level and wondered if I could translate a short essay consisted of four pharaghaps about a particular topic.

I did it and it was crap.

It turned out my Indonesian was crap. Really. I couldn't speak Indonesian translation in a right structure. I surely knew what the essay was trying to say, but I couldn't put the words correctly. I couldn't make a proper sentence in Indonesian so people could understand what I was tryin' to say...oh really, it was ugly.

But still, I can't be bothered to polish my Indonesian skills but instead, I do my TOEFL book I got when I took a course 5 years a go. Why? No particular reason actually but definetely to kill my time here since I have nothing to do.

2006-01-10T15:16:00.000+07:00

:: Before We Leave...

Ngga bisa deh yg namanya disuruh tunggu di rumah aja, berdiam diri berjam-jam menunggu jam 11 malam. Nah! Yang ada kita malah masih sempet2in cari barang2 titipan di pasar, ngurusin tetek bengek di city yang...ahhh..ngga ada abisnya!

Sampai akhirnya kita pikir, gak ada salahnya pergi ke tempat yang ngga terlalu jauh...tapi 'worth it' untuk diliat. And the choice would be Mt. Dandenong. It took about an hour or less, we pretty enjoyed it. Biarpun pake mobil sewaan murah yg powernya diragukan..tapi bisa tuh pulang lagi kesini on time. Sempet posting segala lagi...hehe.

All bags are packed and I think I'm ready to go. Keep in touch, shall we?

2006-01-10T07:43:00.000+07:00

:: Going Home(?)

For your announcement, I'll be away to Indo from tonite until the end of February.

Heran, setiap pulang ke 'rumah', kok kayanya ngga se-excited seperti klo mau pulang ke sini. 'Pulang'?

Sebenernya yg mana sih yang bisa disebut rumah. Kata orang, "Home is the place where the heart is". Hmmm...klo begitu, in my case, Indo is no longer 'home' for me... Conclusion, judul postingan kali ini diganti aja sama ini: "Away for Holiday". Hehe. Sounds right?

Wish me a nice and safe holiday, then :)

2005-12-31T17:02:00.000+07:00

:: So What If Tommorow is New Year?

People always talk about resolution when it comes near to the end of the year. I, myself don't have any new year resolution and I don't care to have one. I do have some targets in life or a list of what I should have accomplished before the next year will meet its end. I don't think I really have to make one every new year, do I? Cuz' I think new life starts everyday. I believe in what I called 'everyday mental resolution' of what I am suppose to get done by today or tommorow or whenever since we merely live day by day...

It's good to have a resolution so you will have a direction of your jorney throughout the upcoming year. But somehow I think most people would easily forget of what they did say, what they did promise and not to mention the new year resolution. They are easily blown away... they are forgotten as if they never outspoken before.

Anyway, Happy New Year Anyone :)

2005-12-29T19:14:00.000+07:00

:: "due too much holiday" syndrome

Kebanyakan liburan memang mungkin bener2 ga bagus ya... atau malah bikin manusia tambah males, atau malah tambah bikin orang capable of doing anything they want...

Contohnya ini :

["before" and "after"]

Beneran deh, kayanya saya ga pernah tuh senekat ini..gunting jaket sendiri. Tapi apa boleh buat, udah ngebet punya rompi yg bisa dipake sama dress. Modal nekat aja deh.... :p

2005-12-25T20:06:00.000+07:00

:: Boxing Day

The most exciting day for all the girls and ladies around Melbourne today! Yeah...today was Boxing Day! What's so special about it?

Lemme' tell you, today EVERY store in Melbourne area is having big sale from 10% up to 70%. Now, how does it sound? Good?? Of course, it is! Myer opened the store really really early at 7 am this morning, and amazingly people still faithfully waited in front of the store's door until they open it. Why? Because MYER gave away some special christmas vouchers for them. THAT was pretty much explains everything, right?

This year I went to city for Boxing Day. I went there about 1.30 pm cuz' I woke up at 11.30 am this morning due to those things I've done a night before. There were sooo many people around. Long queue for fitting room, long queue for registers, everything seemed so rushed to shop. Today I saw most people brought more than one bag in their hands and saw the excitement in their eyes.

I went to city by walk this year. I still remember two years a go when I lived in suburb, I went to Chadstone for boxing day. I woke up early and catch a bus at 8.30 am to Chadstone.and met my friends there. Until then, guess what, I didn't get any single thing for myself. How sad.

After then, I had to go to work at 2 pm so I went to train station while my friend dropped me there. And when I went out to the carpark, surprisingly I'd never seen Chadstone's carpark like that before. It was a sea of cars! Car's horns, people shouted, many cars the owner had left them irresponsiblly... it seemed like they all had lost their minds or something. Even when I and my friends were looking for the car *they even forgot where they parked the car!*, this guy came from his car shouting at us and asked where we'd parked the car so he could have it. The problem was...my friend forgot!

And this guy were following us. And when we finally found the car, there was another car came from opposite direction looking for park. When the driver saw us, he drove his car in front of our friend's car but the guy that had following us was angry because he thought he deserved to get the carpark. But not this other driver. And they just shouted each other for the sake of 'precious' carpark...so I and my friends just left.

That's how crazy it was...

It's not finished. I went to work at MYER city then *yes, the same MYER I went for shopping today* There I served this bunch of customers on lingerie section! I was very dazzled because I had to sort out bras and undies, hanged them back after they tried them, not to mention the various customers' inquiries...I was overwhelmed with bras and undies! Until couple of hours later, the supervisor asked me to go to their store room and help someone to put those bras and undies back to the hanger. And you know what...3 big baskets of them, they definetely drove me crazy. One basket has finished, but yet the second is to come, and so forth... I finished at 11 pm.

Yeah...boxing day is always be a great time for shopping. This year, I was happy enough that I was the customer. And oh...almost forget to tell you, today I got couple of tops and face illuminator I'd wanted for months. And the price of waiting was worth it. Haha...

2005-12-25T06:35:00.000+07:00

:: Merry Christmas!!!
The Christmas, the dinner, and sharing joy moment...

You all may have read from my previous posting that I had this kinda wish to spend christmas in different but lovely way. Having a proper dinner with home made meals served was one part of it. And of course, sharing it with your closed ones is the most important things. And today was the christmas day. Yes, I admit exhaustion had hit me so badly this morning. While forcing myself to wake up this morning and the fact that I had my service at church today.

But everything was happy ending after all. I went to church, done my service, went home and watched some christmas specials on TV. Afterwards, I continued my cooking and finishing the preparation. It took hours, because I and my friends had to cook 3 main meals, sides and couple of quick entrees. Okay, this is the special christmas dinner menu :)

Christmas Dinner Menu

Entree:

Green Salad Mix

Nachos with Tomato and Avocado Dip

Lorraine Quiche

Main:

Roast Turkey with Herb and Bacon Stuffing

Thai Prawn Salad

Whole Baked Ham with Grapefruit Glaze

Baked Pasta

Sides:

Hasselback Potatoes

Desserts:

Frozen Christmas Pudding with Chocolate Sauce

Creme Caramel Pudding

Honestly, it was undeniably tiring, but it was fun though. It was my second time throwing a party at home, but this one is absolutely different compare to the one before. I served more seasonal foods this time and the worse was I have never known how they taste should be like because I've never tried them before. And then, even though I only invite 8 people for the dinner, but the variety of foods are more complex this time. Last Housewarming party on early this year, we invited around 30 people, but we only provided less complicated foods because mostly we used instant ingredients. So yeah...this one was pretty a blast for my cooking experience :)

Anyway, that was pretty much my christmas was all about. Hope your christmas would be merry, too :) And finally, please allow me sincerelly to wish you all:

Merry Christmas 2005

Let's His peace and His never ending love will forever be in your heart.

And let's share His spirit of love around you every single day.

2005-12-24T14:57:00.000+07:00

:: One More Day...

1 pm : Went to Queen Victoria Market. I bought 3.4 kgs of whole turkey, whatever kind of cheese, fruits and all party needs. Whoaa...thanks to the inventor of trolley...
4 pm : reached home, went to Asian Grocery nearby and put my things in the fridge.
5 pm : run to City to buy xmas present 30 mins before David Jones closed. *pheewww...*
7 pm : Bake a cake
9 pm : Still baking....
11.00 pm : Tidy up the dinner table while watching Christmas Carols on TV and yet still cooking...
11.55 pm : Still baking and cooking
12.00 am : Merry Xmas!!! *still cooking*
12.20 am : Having dinner for three of us at Mike's House while watching light decoration he put himself in his house...so niceee...
1.30 am : Come back home with friend, continue our kitchen activity.
3 am : Forcing our selves to stop cooking and baking.
4 am: Went sleep peacefully....

2005-12-20T13:38:00.000+07:00

:: Christmas Shopping!

No no no.. don't you ever think about me buying new clothes or cute long dress or a pair of beautiful shoes! I wish I would buy those things! But apparently I was rushing to go to city today because I had to buy some christmas decorations for my in-house-fine-dining-dinner on christmas night, soo... in order to make my dream came true precisely, I bought these stuffs to add in the moment...you know what I mean ;)

When I arrived at city, like usual for almost every single day in December, shopping center were always full. I've never seen people in Melbourne like this in any other months. So packed, so rushed but yet so fun! And ummm...yes I was one type of people who love to do things last minutes...*mental note*..."no more procrastination" would be on the very top of my new year resolution.

Back to the main topic, about xmas decoration. But before we go on that, please remove that imagination of me carrying around a fake pine tree whice its height is twice of mine... but please, think of a proper christmas decorations to put on a proper christmas dinner table. And ohh... never think I would buy expensive thing only for once-in-a-year moment like christmas... Nah! I'm getting wiser now....and by the way, what would be the purpose of a store like TwoDollar shop or Reject Shop except you'll go and buy something cheap from there? :p

Christmas shopping is always fun, isn't it? It WAS tiring to get myself into a packed store full with bunch of people and loads of drolling beautiful decorations... ah, well..like I've said before, it's a once-in-a-year moment kind of time. We HAVE to cherish it :D

Btw, how's your christmas shopping so far?

2005-12-19T17:21:00.000+07:00

:: The Preparation Was Started...

Today I got a special appointment with my friend at my apartment. Today we were planning to bake our very first time Christmas Shortbread and Lorraine Quiche!

All the ingredients were ready to be used on the top my shelf. Butter, flour, icing sugar and rice flour, those are the only things to use for this recipe. All those excitement and curiousity became one melting pot within my mind, thinking if it was right or it would be alright! The best part of making those cookies were the cookies cutting. I got those cookie cutter in star, heart and angel shape! I love the angel one, but it was really hard to use! The angel has the wings, hip and head that we should take extra care on it before it broke!

It was really fascinating, especially after we put them on the oven tray. It was kinda quick process because it only take maximum 15 minutes to bake. And it tasted not bad at all. We like it! We made quite a lot of them and kept trying to figure out if there was something missing or why did it taste like this rather than that.. blah...blah...blah... But overall, we were happy of the result. And all of them were finished in 24 hours time. Believe it or not...

The Quiche! Not really though one, but once again I would say that this was our 1st experiment. We did it though. As long as it looked like one, taste like one, shaped like one...it was more than enough :D A bit crumbly on the pastry but it didn't affect the taste of the food! Of course, proven by the fact that the quiche itself were already gone by the same night. Phewww..mission were done!

By the way, I just sent all the xmas cards to my friend this morning. Mmmm...do you think they would receive it before christmas? I hope so... *finger crossed*

2005-12-16T23:20:00.000+07:00

:: My Christmas Plans

Buying xmas cards, write them and send them to my friends around the world!
Preparing xmas dinner for 8-1o people
Making a list of guests
Browsing for recipes and home design ideas over internet and magazines.
Practising baking skill to make sure that all those foods are gonna be edible.
Calling a friend to ask for assistance.
Smile, put down all the burdens, take a deep breath...
Ready for sharing joy, happiness and love. Yay, christmas is here!!!

2005-12-14T22:47:00.000+07:00

:: I Thought I Was Fine...

But I wasn't. I may sound exaggerated, but I really had lived in denial in past two days. Been thinking that there's no such a big deal had happened, but the truth was it really had.

Few hours after the accident I was still laughing about it. Not about how bad it was, but it was about how misfortunate we were, that even in the worst moment like that, there was a police handed my friend $170 fine plus the company owner who was about to claim the cost of his ugly fence that my friend hit.

A day after that I have become the most conscientious car passanger ever.

On the second day, I didn't feel really well. I got this headache and finally vomit. And you believe it or not, after a while I've became better than before. I gave myself a flashback to what had happened couple days ago and realized that it was really happened and I couldn't pretend that it never happened.

Then I finally tried to speak about it to some people that I trust and their comforting words were really worked with me. I took my time to think about it and thanking God that His help never comes late.

Another thing to be thankful before I end this year...

2005-12-12T18:01:00.000+07:00

:: It was an accident, but not the bad one.

I got an accident today. Doesn't really sound like I really got one? Okay, let me rephrase. I got a car accident today, I wasn't the pedestrian or just the witness. I was in a car and I didn't drive, my friend, though. I sat on the passanger side and suddenly this car came towards us and hit us so bad.

The story begun when I and my friend went to Savos to give away some stuffs then we were driving away to Westgate Bridge because my friend wanted to pay for the toll bill (eTag). The closest Coles Express is on Westgate Bridge, around 10 mins from our apartment so there we went.

Then after every business is done, we decided to go home. Until at one intersection between Montague St. and Mourne St and we decided to go straight. We were on Montague St and we were waiting for the cars at Mourne St. stopped (it was traffic Mourne St). It was clear after a while and my friend drove straight and we forgot of something....

There is another direction of Mourne St. that we didn't aware of. So when we passed the road {after we thought it was safe}, there was a car came in towards us [I think the car was about 60 or 70 km/h] from the other direction. And the car bang my friend's car, hitting the passanger side, where I did sit on. The sound of two cars crashing each other was definetely freaked me like hell. I couldn't do anything, and that time I realized if there's anything bad happened, it would only be me. The crash shoke my body and suddenly the left parts of my body felt were sore.

My friend lost control of the car. The car hit the side of the road, hit the fence of an office that situated at the corner of the road. Then the car stopped. We were looking of each other, checking ourselves and tried to take control of this situation. My body was trembling, my heart was beating so quick and suddenly my head was like spinning. But afterwards, it was okay.

Then my friend went out to approach this guy, who hit our car. They exchanged information and asking our condition. Then this guy told me, if he was driving faster than he did, I might get killed. I am fully aware of that. The only thing I could do is just thank to God because His angels came on the right time to protect me :)

Even though he was the one hit our car, but according to the rules it was my friend's mistake to drive across the street without gave way when there is give way sign. Of course she knew about it, she just didn't realize.

Last but not least, I and my friend are okay. We discussed about it all day and you know what... after a while I realized, it was good that I didn't see the car when it was coming towards us. If I did, I think I'd get a lifetime trauma and unforgetable nightmare before christmas! For sure...

2005-12-10T20:57:00.000+07:00

:: Lucky Girl

Did I just say that I was such a failure yesterday? Apparently not for today!

Today I received two (early) christmas gifts. Woohoo... am I lucky or what...They really made my day though...

Thanks ku and the cutie Anna...
I insist to send you both something for x'mas!

2005-12-09T15:04:00.000+07:00

:: Such A Failure...

Have tried 3 new recipes last four days. But they all went wrong.

First, the cheese macaroni was terribly tasteless. On the next day, I made a brownies. Again, it wasn't really good at all. The eggs I used are no longer fresh, so it smelled kinda bad! If it wasn't yuck, it was blahhh!!!

And today I gave another shot on shortbread. "Easy" is the word that came out from my mouth when I saw the recipe. But it seemed like this experiment would made my failure even complete! Even when I saw the dough while I was making it, I know it wouldn't work. Trust my motherhood instinct already :p

Now I'm kinda thinking myself as a loser baker. Hehe.

2005-12-03T10:56:00.000+07:00

:: Xmas and The City

This year, I'm gladly telling you that I will spent my Christmas in Melbourne. It's gonna be my 2nd christmas here as well as the upcoming new year...*grin*

Who doesn't love christmas, by the way? This is the day when everybody, regardless the backgrounds or religions, sharing love, joy, togetherness between people around them. Every year, when the calender has been rolled to the the last sheet, the christmas athmosphere would start surrounding the whole city. Where ever it is...

If you walked around city of Melbourne, you'll see big christmas decorations and huge x'mas tree displayed at the center of the city, stars hanging in the sky or even, you could find Santa Claus in a public transport!

One famous tradition is MYER open window. It's a yearly display of christmas story on its windows. Every year people come to city, stand in quite long queue just to stare on the window, looking and listening to the christmas story told from the window. And as I said before, because it's quite a tradition, kids are not the only ones who could not miss this show, the grandma's and grandpa's are also looking forward to see, too!

It's a really enjoyable view, for sure. Nothing would beat Christmas day, even my own birthday. So glad it's just around the corner... :)

2005-11-30T15:03:00.000+07:00

:: Good Bye

Many people have almost similar kind of life like mine. Come from a far away country to an unfamiliar land where we have to live for years onwards. We know nobody and we know nothing. We speak in different language. We go to not so familiar supermarket, we buy different stuffs and we go to school where we have to adapt every single thing for the sake of survival.

Yes...even though it seems like a big challange, but no doubt it would be on the top of the list of most fascinating and most valuable experience in our lives. If my life was a book, the last four years would become a special chapter. It's not only a line or two, it's a journey that I have to put in into a special chapter.

This year, I couldn't count how many people I know had left Melbourne for good. At least, there are 5 good friends of mine had already gone for home in the last 30 days. For whatever reason. Whatever it is, those final decisions are trully a big step to the next level stage of life.

I give my salute for them, really. Since I even do not know yet what my final decision would be and keep thinking if I had enough willingness to leave this beautiful country and move to the land called home...

Good luck dear friends, I'd always love to hear a good news from you.

2005-11-04T18:36:00.000+07:00

:: Introducing You...My Very First Allergic!

Couple days ago when I woke up early (ok, it wasn't that early) in the morning and found out that my nose was blocked. In few seconds I understand I just had runny nose and when I was taking my shower, I realise it was quite severe for an early stage of runny nose. Why,,, because I was absolutely fine a day before and I didn't feel any symptoms of about to getting sick! So, I didn't take a medicine or anythings cuz' I was pretty sure it was happened due to the extreme weather changing in Melbourne last few days. Nothing else. Anyway....

And the next day...it became worse. Yes, I did sneeze a lot! I was about to go to city library when the winds heavilly blew and as well as my runny nose. Geez, I was so devastated and got annoyed. I didn't know what the heck was wrong with my body,,,not only because of this almost-every-2-minutes-sneeze, but suddenly my eyes were becoming so itchy and watery . I looked very tired and felt drowsy.

Now guys...have you ever heard about hay fever?

According to the pharmaciest, I am definetely positive for hay fever. After home, I typed for google and checked out some information about this so familiar kind of allergic, and here what I've found:

"Hay fever is the common name for a condition called allergic rhinitis, which means an allergy that affects the nose. Most people associate hay fever with spring, when airborne pollens from grasses are at their peak. However, hay fever can occur at any time of the year. This is known as perennial allergic rhinitis. It is usually caused by a reaction to allergens around the home such as dust mites, moulds or furry animals."

Okay...so it happens mostly during spring time. You know what, spring in Australia was just only started on the 1st of November...and I was attacked on the 2nd? How nice is that...

In some cases, the symptoms of hay fever can be so severe that you can't sleep or concentrate. That's why a person who suffers badly from hay ever can feel tired and unwell. Some of the symptoms of hay fever include:

Sneezing [checked]
A runny or stuffy nose [checked]
Itchy ears, nose and throat [checked on nose]
Red, itchy or watery eyes [checked]
Headaches [not that bad, though]

Okay,,,I think from now on, I'll believe the pharmaciest.

And I was wondering, what was actually happening during the fever. I was fine the other night and I woke up like a walking zombie in the next morning . What's happening?

Hay fever is an allergic reaction. Your nose acts as a filter. The tiny hairs and mucus that line the nasal passages trap dust, pollens and other microscopic particles. A person with hay fever is allergic to some of the particles that get trapped in the nose, such as pollen.

An allergic reaction means the immune system treats a harmless substance as if it were dangerous, and launches an 'attack'. The nasal passages become inflamed and more mucus is produced.

So my nose was launcing an attack ? Interesting fact...even though it wasn't necessary at all. Remember on the fact that I was brought up in a heavilly polluted city, contaminated air and harmful dust from every corner of every place....plus, that unbelievable smokes that came from bajaj...jeezzz... for 6 years, every single day! {kenapa sih di tarq banyak bgt bajajnya???} I used to live under the smoke-blackened clouds and I was fuuaaaiiinnnneeee!

And now??? Why my nose doesn't no longer work that properly like it used to be? My oh my, just wishing for a better weather tommorow *plus without pollens flyin' around and around!*

2005-10-31T21:39:00.000+07:00

:: Romance

Found this forum of my favourite romance author. And I just realized that I'm not the only one who crazy deeply fallin' in love with those characters in the story. They are far more unbelieavably great!

I'll note some of my favourite sentences that I would never get bored to read and re-read again and again...*taken from the post of one of very devoted JM reader*

Allyson,

Jason is my fave JM hero too. There are just so many things about him that I love.

He was a very romantic man. He has declared such magnanimous statements to Tory, even though it was cloaked by their business arrangement. Even if I didn’t "love" him in the first part of the book yet, when I came to the part where he proposed to Victoria, my heart just melted.

1. “If you marry me, you’ll have the freedom to do whatever you like with your life. You could build one hospital in America and another near Wakefield, and stay in England. I have six estates and a thousand tenants and servants. My servants alone could provide you with enough sick people to fill up your hospital. If not, I’ll pay them to get sick. You can cover the walls of Wakefield with your sketches, and if you run out of room, I’ll add on to the house.”

2. “Nothing’s wrong with you. Andrew is a spineless fool. And I am a bigger fool than he is.”

3. “I’ve tried a hundred times to let you go Victoria, but I can’t.”

4. “Tory. I like that – it suits you perfectly. I also like the way the sun shines on you hair when you drive off in the carriage with Caroline Collingwood. And I like the sound of your laughter. I like the way you’re eyes flash when you’re angry…”

5. “Why? You’ve enjoyed watching the play. And I’ve enjoyed watching you.”

6. He knocked on the door, feeling a little foolish for appearing on her doorstep on the night before the wedding. He had no reason for coming except to pleasure himself with the sight of her and, he hoped, to please her by telling her about the Indian pony he had arranged to have put on one of his ships from America. It was to be one of her wedding presents, but in truth he was absurdly eager to see her demonstrate her skill on it. He knew how beautiful she would look with her graceful body bent low over the horse’s neck, and her wondrous hair glinting in the sunlight…

7. "To think I actually believe there are no such things as angels.”

8. To Jason, who never before known the joy of being loved and admired for what he possessed or for what he appeared to be but for what he really was, the quite inner peace he felt was sheer bliss. At night, he could never hold her close enough or long enough. During the day, he took her on picnics and swam with her in the creek at Wakefield Park. When he was working, she was there on the perimeters of his mind, making him smile. He wanted to lay the world at her feet, but all Victoria seemed to want was him, and that knowledge filled him with profound tenderness

He is very generous.He agreed to take Victoria under his wing, bought him clothes and even gave her a dowry and protected her with his name. When they were married, he continued to shower her with gowns, jewels and furs. After they have settled their differences, he renamed his yacht the Victoria and even built another one for her and her friends. He built hospitals in honor of his father.

I love his wit and sense of humor. Examples are:

1)After Tory rescued John Collingwood’s sailboat:
Tory: You’re impossible!
Jason: You’re right.
Tory: You really are impossible.
Jason: We already agreed on that.

2)Tory: …stop smiling at me in that charming way – everyone is watching us!
Jason: Am I being charming? …. What I see is a half dozen of your besotted admirers standing over there, looking as if they would all like to devise a way to slit my throat and dispose of my body.

3)“Hush Victoria,” [Tory’s grandmother] said, directing her dagger gaze at Jason as she continued, “two of your servants are related to two of mine, and they tell me all Wakefield Park was in an uproar when you refused to bed your bride for a week after the ceremony.” Victoria let out a mortified moan and Jason’s arm tightened supportively around her shoulders.

“Well,” she snapped, “what have you to say to that, young man?”

Jason quirked a thoughtful eyebrow at her. “I would say I apparently need to have a word with my servants.”

LOOLL!! I could go on and on...

Sharon

And ohh...my another favourite quote from another JM book:

"If you would take one step forward, darling, you could cry in my arms. And while you do, I'll tell you how sorry I am for everything I've done. And when I'm finished, you can help me find a way to forgive myself" - Ian Thornton (Almost Heaven).

But of course on the top of the list, this author would always make me falling in love.
And those words are absolutely my best romance ever :)

2005-10-31T16:20:00.000+07:00

:: Not So Important Posting about Unimportant Thing...

Friendster just added some (unimportant) features which they think they're cool...but I apparently don't think so.

At first, they changed the layout [which for me way too complicated to be called user friendly] then adding some additional features such as Who's Viewed Me, counting how many times you profile has been displayed, Friend Tracker [informing any updates if your friend's page has changed]. So, if I said, "Friendster: A modern technology to explore the narcism side in you.." it doesn't sound too much, doest it?

Ah well...

Those things do not really bother me actually, until few days ago I saw "Post Shout Out" box added in too. And until yesterday I finally gave it a try and expecting it would work similar like my shoutbox in this blog, but it's not. The result: a useless bubble on the top of your profile, as if you were talking. D'oh! And one more thing I just found out just now,,,another feature called "Grab the Photo". !$@%#%^*&!&amp;%#%!*&

This feature really really annoys me cuz' it means everyone can just grab your photo and put it on their gallery. Hellloo...it's YOUR picture and of course it's a private thing. Yes, we share pictures over the net but it doesn't mean we want to give them away to everybody so they can upload them! And FYI, are they just soo lack of knowledge to understand rightclick-and-save??? Why they put so much effort just to create that kinda [useless] feature???

Weird.

* fixed! ;)

2005-10-28T15:08:00.000+07:00

:: Library

I've been gone to this library last few days and planning to go there again during next two weeks. What else did I do if it wasn't studying. I'm currently on my final exam season. The first exam was today and the last one would be on 8th of November. Three more left.

However, I found out this library is no bad at all. Its quite new, cozy, not really big though. Little gallery in the other side and a grand piano for every advanced player to play. I had listened some people played on that piano and they really turned the surrounding very blissful. The study rooms themselves are not really big enough, but luckyly I have always found a place. There is also a cafe in the first floor and they serve nice coffee as well.

The location of the library is situated at a small street, it's not even called a street but a lane. Some not-so-tall buildings, very classy and beautiful. Lots of cafe along the stree and cute boutiques too.

By the by, I can't help it but really glad because the library collection are pretty enormous. They got my favourite Indo writter, Fira Basuki. And also Seno Gumira, Nina Pane but unfortunately not Ayu Utami. This library also has quite a lot of new books which I don't have to buy.

So glad I finally found another great spot in this city :)

2005-10-22T17:12:00.000+07:00

:: Blogging...Then Got Fired!

I read this magazine couple days a go and this article caught my eyes when I saw it. The title is "Can a Blog Get You Fired?" from Cleo Magazine November Edition.

According to this article, there are quite a lot of people who got fired because of blogging. I'm not talking because they were blogging during their work hours. What they did were they made fun of their job, uploading unrespectable photos about their workplaces, bitching other workers in their blog which according to their employer is very objectional and negative.

A special term for a person get canned because of blogging is called dooce. Dooce is a personal website of Heather Armstrong, the 1st person sacked because the content of her blog in 2002. Other funny story is Queen of The Sky, an airline employee who put her photos of her posing in an empty plane while in uniform.

Well, there are lots of story you can find about people who got fired because of funny reason other than blogging. Those dooces have made their revenge website, www.simplyfired.com.
There are some funny stories about people who got fired due to funny and simply hard to believe reasons. Well, you better have a look at it.

In conclusion, back to discussion about those bloggers, i think I wouldn't 100% blame it on the employer. Imagine if you were the employer and one of your employee saying something bitchy about you in their blog *which literally could be seen by everybody who has internet connection*. I think I'll do the same thing if I was in those employers' shoes.

So dear blogger friends, be careful of what you write, be cautious and aware. Even though this place is your way of expression and freedom of mind, to be responsible of what you write is wise. So lastly, be wise.

2005-10-18T21:31:00.000+07:00

:: Tell me...Does staring in front of computer for almost 9 hours straight sound good???

I'm jaded.
I'm 50%...no actually, 75% worn out.

I have to sleep. Now.
I'll see you tomorrow morning dear VB.net and my LovelyBloom site.
We'll surely meet each other again...
and please...don't put me in such a mistery...
and don't ever you dare to re-appear during my dream tonite.
You are more than enough to be true.

I'll fight those codings out again tommorow.
Pray for me ;)